BOEM Completes Environmental Review Ahead of Gulf of Maine Wind Leases
The Gulf of Maine is moving closer to becoming another prime area for offshore wind after the U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) completed its environmental review of the region. The review is the next step toward greenlighting commercial leases after BOEM announced the start in March and followed up in April with the designation of the first areas for leases.
BOEM announced that a comprehensive assessment of the wind energy area in the Gulf of Maine has shown that deployment of offshore wind projects will not have adverse impacts on the environment. In its final Environmental Assessment, the agency declares that possible wind energy-related leasing, site assessment, and site characterization activities in the earmarked areas will not significantly impact the human environment.
The detailed EA evaluated the potential issuance of commercial wind energy leases off the coasts of Maine, New Hampshire, and Massachusetts. It focused mainly on commercial wind activities such as conducting surveys and installing meteorological buoys. However, the assessment does not tackle the installation of offshore turbines, which would be assessed in a separate environmental review if a leaseholder submits a project proposal.
BOEM has already identified the potential from the Gulf of Maine to produce 15 GW of renewable energy that would be enough to supply power to more than five million homes. Eight potential lease areas totaling nearly one million acres have been identified in the Gulf of Maine.
“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 Elizabeth Klein, BOEM Director.
Getting the Gulf of Maine closer to commercial auctions is another milestone in the Biden-Harris administration’s ambitions of deploying 30 GW of offshore wind energy capacity by 2030 and 15 GW of floating offshore wind energy capacity by 2035.
The administration last week highlighted it had reached the halfway mark on its goal having so far approved 10 commercial-scale offshore wind energy projects with a combined capacity of more than 15 GW, enough to power 5.2 million homes. Officials estimate that the successful deployment of 30 GW of offshore wind will help power 10 million homes with clean energy, support 77,000 jobs, and avoid 78 million metric tons of CO2 emissions, while also spurring $12 billion per year in private investment in offshore wind projects.
Efforts are already underway to launch a pilot test project for floating wind turbines in the Gulf of Maine. In July, BOEM concluded a 60-day comment period for the proposed lease sale of the eight future areas in the Gulf of Maine. As part of its future schedule, BOEM anticipates conducting the first lease sales in the Gulf of Maine in 2024 and 2025.