Avangrid Receives Federal Record of Decision for New England Wind - Seite 2

"With the approval of the New England Wind project, we have now approved more than 10 gigawatts of offshore wind projects in under three years," said Bureau of Ocean Energy Management Director Elizabeth Klein. "BOEM is proud of our open communication and frequent collaboration with federal partners, Tribal Nations, states, industry and ocean users to shape project reviews and avoid or minimize conflict with existing users and marine life.”

On March 27, 2024, Avangrid submitted multiple proposals for the New England Wind projects to the Massachusetts-Rhode Island-Connecticut Multi-State Procurement for Offshore Wind. The states are anticipated to announce selected projects from the competitive procurement in August 2024.

The ROD comes after years of analysis of potential environmental impacts of Avangrid’s construction, operation, and conceptual decommissioning plans by BOEM. Stakeholder engagement for this critical environmental review included three virtual public meetings hosted by BOEM to solicit additional feedback on the Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) published in late December 2023 and consideration of over 750 comments received from the public. BOEM responded to all comments received in the Final Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS), recently published on February 26, 2024. The DEIS, FEIS, and ROD are available on BOEM’s website.

New England Wind 1 is an exceptionally advanced and shovel-ready project in federal lease area OCS-A 0534, roughly 30 miles south of Barnstable, Massachusetts and making landfall under the Craigville Beach parking lot. The project will border Vineyard Wind 1 to the south.

New England Wind 1 offers extraordinary certainty and viability. The ROD builds on the project’s complete state, regional, and local permitting, a signed host community agreement with the Town of Barnstable, and a Project Labor Agreement with the Massachusetts Building Trades. If selected in the current competitive procurement, the project can begin construction as soon as next year and achieve commercial operations before the end of the decade, helping achieve ambitious 2030 state climate targets set by the New England states.

“As we confront the climate crisis, the need for clean energy has never been more urgent. Avangrid’s success moving the New England Wind lease forward brings offshore wind projects one step closer toward development and becoming a reality for New England residents,” said U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-Connecticut). “New England Wind will not only help meet clean energy goals by reducing emissions and powering over 1 million homes and businesses with clean power, but will also support good paying union jobs.”