Another offshore wind project off the coast of the Vineyard is a step closer to coming to fruition.
The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) announced in a Monday press release it has completed an environmental review of the proposed New England Wind project, formerly known as Vineyard Wind South.
The agency will issue a record of decision on whether the project is approved no earlier than April, according to the release.
New England Wind is an offshore wind project proposed to be located 20 nautical miles from the southwestern corner of Martha’s Vineyard and about 24 nautical miles from Nantucket. The project is expected to generate 2,600 megawatts of power, which the release states would be enough to power over 900,000 homes.
Developers Park City Wind, LLC, submitted a two-phased project plan for New England Wind that includes up to 129 wind turbine generators and up to five offshore export cables that would transmit electricity to onshore transmission systems in the town of Barnstable and Bristol County.
Park City Wind is also a subsidiary of Avangrid, the company which partly owns the nearby Vineyard Wind project.
BOEM published a draft environmental impact statement in 2022 and initiated a public comment period that closed last February. The agency also held three virtual public meetings to solicit feedback from tribal nations, local communities, commercial fishing interests, and other stakeholders. During the process, BOEM received 776 comments, which were used to develop a final environmental impact statement.
“Diverse public input was essential to BOEM’s careful and thorough analysis of the environmental impact of the proposed New England Wind project,” BOEM director Elizabeth Klein said in Monday’s release.
New England Wind’s 598-page final environmental impact statement — along with its 1,342-page appendices — analyze the potential environmental impacts during the construction and operation of New England Wind, while also considering a number of alternative measures.
A notice of availability, which also tells how long the comment period is for the statement, will be available on March 1.
