The United States Department of Interior (DoI) and the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) have unveiled a new plan for the lease of two zones offshore Massachusetts totalling 390,000 acres (approximately 1,578 km²) for the development of future large-scale wind energy projects. The two specific areas are labelled as OCS-A 0502 and OCS-A 0503 and are both located in federal waters on the outer continental shelf (OCS).
Massachusetts is a key zone for the development of offshore wind power projects. In May 2017, Iberdrola's subsidiary Avangrid Renewables entered into a strategic partnership with Vineyard Wind to jointly develop an 800 MW offshore wind power project off the coast. The BOEM announced its notice of intent (NoI) to prepare an environmental impact statement (EIS) for the facility in March 2018.
Apart from Massachusetts, the state of New York is also moving ahead and declared Statoil as provisional winner of the U.S. government’s wind lease sale of 321 km² offshore New York. The lease comprises an area that could potentially accommodate more than 1 GW of offshore wind, with a phased development expected to start with 400-600 MW.
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