(WASHINGTON) — The Biden-Harris administration has announced the approval of the SouthCoast Wind Project – the nation’s 11th commercial-scale offshore wind energy project approved under President Biden’s leadership.
With the approval, the Interior Department and its Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) have approved over 19 gigawatts (GW) of clean energy from offshore wind energy projects – enough to power more than 6 million homes.
The department has worked to meet the moment to grow a clean energy economy that is strengthening the nation’s power grid and creating good-paying jobs across construction, manufacturing, shipbuilding and more. In addition to the approval of the nation’s first 11 commercial-scale offshore wind projects, BOEM has held six offshore wind lease auctions since 2022 – including a record-breaking sale offshore New York and the first-ever sales offshore the Pacific, Gulf of Mexico, and Gulf of Maine coasts.
The department has also taken steps to grow a sustainable offshore wind industry by encouraging the use of project labor agreements, strengthening workforce training, bolstering a domestic supply chain, and through enhanced engagement with tribes, fisheries, underserved communities and ocean users.
The SouthCoast Wind Project is expected to generate up to 2.4 GW of offshore wind energy for Massachusetts and Rhode Island, enough to power more than 840,000 homes. The project area covers approximately 127,388 acres and about 26 nautical miles (nm) south of Martha’s Vineyard and 20 nm south of Nantucket, Mass.
The project, as approved, includes the construction of up to 141 wind turbine generators and up to five offshore substation platforms located at a maximum of 143 positions, and up to eight offshore export cables potentially making landfall in Brayton Point or Falmouth, Mass. Compared to SouthCoast’s original proposed project, the selected alternative removes up to six wind turbine positions in the northeastern portion of the lease area to reduce potential impacts on foraging habitat and potential displacement of wildlife from this habitat adjacent to Nantucket Shoals.
– Bureau of Ocean Energy Management
