The federal government on Friday completed a final environmental impact review of an offshore wind project slated to be built south of Martha’s Vineyard.
SouthCoast Wind, a 147-turbine project planned to be built around 26 nautical miles south of the Island, finished the major review, according to a statement from the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM).
The project includes five offshore substation platforms in a 127,388-acre lease area, and eight offshore cables will make landfall in either Falmouth or Brayton Point in Somerset.
The federal agency states the project is expected to generate 2.4 gigawatts of energy, which officials say would power more than 800,000 homes.
“Tribal nations, federal and state agencies, local communities, ocean users, and key stakeholders have been instrumental in informing BOEM’s detailed environmental review of the proposed SouthCoast Wind Project,” BOEM Director Elizabeth Klein said in the release. “Completing this environmental review represents another major milestone in the [Biden] administration’s commitment to achieving clean energy objectives that will benefit local communities.”
The news follows a federal auction of offshore wind lease areas in waters off Outer Cape Cod in late October, some of which were bought by Avangrid, which owns the Vineyard Wind project. Still, WCAI reported only half of the lease areas put up for sale were sold, and at “rock-bottom prices,” likely from the possibility of Donald Trump’s now realized return to the White House. Trump had vowed in May to halt offshore wind projects through an executive order during his presidential campaign.
The SouthCoast Wind project still needs final federal approval before construction can begin.
