Maryland Offshore Wind Project Gets Final Approval

The United States Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) has accepted the Construction and Operations Plan (COP) for the two-gigawatt (GW) Maryland offshore wind project by an Italian-led joint venture.

The project by US Wind Inc., majority-owned by Italy’s Renexia SpA, will be able to power over 718,000 homes, BOEM said in a statement Tuesday.

Located about 8.7 nautical miles offshore Maryland and approximately nine nautical miles from Sussex County, Delaware, the project will build 114 wind turbine generators, up to four offshore substation platforms, up to four offshore export cable corridors and one meteorological tower.

The project will be implemented in multiple phases. Two phases have received offshore renewable energy certificates from the state government, according to BOEM.

“After more than four years of rigorous and robust analysis, we are thrilled to have secured this final BOEM approval”, US Wind chief executive Jeff Grybowski said in a separate company statement. “US Wind’s projects will produce massive amounts of homegrown energy and will help satisfy the region’s critical need for more electricity, all while supporting good local jobs”.

“US Wind’s COP considers the full build-out of the federal lease area, which has the potential to generate up to 2 gigawatts of offshore wind power and power more than 600,000 homes in the region”, the company said.

“BOEM integrated meaningful feedback from Tribal Nations, government agencies, ocean users, and other interested parties before reaching this important decision”, the bureau said. “The feedback resulted in required measures to avoid, minimize, or mitigate any potential impacts from the project on marine life and other important ocean uses, such as fishing”.

“Under the Biden-Harris administration, the Department of the Interior has approved more than 15 gigawatts of clean energy from ten offshore wind projects, enough to power nearly 5.25 million homes”, BOEM said.

Earlier BOEM released guidelines on development plans for the New York Bight area, which has six proposed offshore wind leases in New York and New Jersey. BOEM estimates that the full development of the six areas could provide up to seven GW, enough to power up to two million homes. 

“Today’s record of decision identifies 58 previously applied avoidance, minimization, mitigation, and monitoring (AMMM) measures BOEM plans to apply across the six lease areas”, BOEM said. “To reduce potential environmental impacts, developers can consider these measures in the Construction and Operations Plans they submit to BOEM for subsequent review under the National Environmental Policy Act.

“Project-specific environmental reviews may include revised, additional, or different AMMM measures if needed to further reduce potential impacts”.

The Biden administration has held six offshore wind lease auctions including for areas off the Carolinas, New Jersey, New York and the Pacific and Gulf of Mexico coasts.

On April 24 Interior Secretary Deb Haaland announced a new five-year offshore wind leasing plan for the Atlantic, the Gulf of Mexico, the Pacific and U.S. territories. Four awards are planned for 2024, one each for 2025 and 2026, two for 2027 and four for 2028.

The U.S. aims to reach 30 GW of offshore wind deployment by 2030, toward at least 110 GW by 2050, as announced by the Energy Department March 29, 2021.

To contact the author, email jov.onsat@rigzone.com