Potential Gulf of Maine Area for Wind Leasing Halved to Nearly 1 MM Acres

The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) has issued an environmental assessment (EA) for a potential wind lease sale in the Gulf of Maine, reducing the area designation from about two million acres to nearly one million acres.

The assessment only covered leasing and site assessment activities such as conducting surveys and installing meteorological buoys. Such activities “will not have a significant impact on the environment”, the Interior Department sub-agency said in a statement about the EA results.

The final EA covered potential leases off the coasts of Maine, Massachusetts and New Hampshire. A separate environmental review on turbine installations will be conducted if a leaseholder submits a project proposal, the BOEM said.

Eight areas are planned to be auctioned for around 15 gigawatts (GW) of generation, enough to power over five million homes, the BOEM said.

The EA now issued had considered comments from tribes and ocean users. “We are committed to ensuring that future offshore wind development proceeds in a manner that reduces potential impacts on other ocean activities and the surrounding ecosystem”, said BOEM Director Elizabeth Klein.

The BOEM announced the wind area designation March 15. Located 23–92 miles off the coasts of three states, the initial area spanned approximately two million acres with potential generation of 32 GW. That already represented an 80 percent reduction from the area identified by the BOEM for possible leasing, according to the bureau.

In other offshore wind developments, the BOEM announced September 5 the approval of the two-GW Maryland Offshore Wind Project, raising the total capacity of federally approved offshore wind power projects in the United States to over 15 GW.

The Maryland project by U.S. Wind Inc., majority-owned by Italy’s Renexia SPA, received a positive Record of Decision. A Record of Decision is an initial approval. The project still needs to obtain approval for its development plan.

The decision creates potential renewable power for over 718,000 homes. Meanwhile, across the U.S., approved offshore wind projects now represent potential power enough for 5.25 million homes, according to the BOEM.

On September 3 the BOEM issued a final sale notice for the first-ever wind lease sale offshore Oregon. The auction offers two wind energy areas covering a combined 194,995 acres and offering a potential 3.1 GW of power.

The Biden administration has so far completed five offshore wind lease sales, including for areas in New Jersey, New York, the Carolinas 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. 

In the latest lease awards Equinor ASA and Dominion Energy Inc. won two areas covering a combined 277,948 acres offshore Delaware, Maryland and Virginia under the first Central Atlantic leasing, as announced by the BOEM August 15.

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