Installation of First U.S. Offshore Wind Farm Complete

On August 18, 2016 Deepwater Wind announced that construction on the Block Island Wind Farm is complete. The 30-megawatt project off the coast of Rhode Island will be commissioned by the end of the year.

Wind Energy Development Offshore North Carolina

U.S. Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell and Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) Director Abigail Ross Hopper recently announced a proposed lease sale for 122,405 acres offshore North Carolina for commercial wind energy leasing. A Proposed Sale Notice and Request for Interest for Commercial Leasing for Wind Power on the Outer Continental Shelf Offshore North Carolina, published in the Federal Register, includes a 60-day public comment period ending on October 17. Comments received electronically or postmarked by October 17 will be made available to the public and considered before the publication of the Final Sale Notice, which will announce the time and date of the lease sale.

BOEM will host a public seminar in mid-September in Raleigh, North Carolina, to describe the auction format, explain the auction rules, and demonstrate the auction process through meaningful examples. BOEM will also host a public meeting in Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, in mid-September. The time, venue, and related materials for the seminar and public meeting will be posted online here.

Major Advance in Developing Wind Energy Offshore California

In other offshore wind news, BOEM Director Abigail Ross Hopper announced a major step forward in supporting wind energy development in federal waters offshore California. The Department is issuing a request for interest in a lease area requested by Trident Winds, LLC for its proposed 765-megawatt floating wind energy project. BOEM is also seeking public comment on the project proposal, its potential environmental consequences, and the use of the area in which the proposed project would be located.