The US government on Monday announced the completion of the environmental analysis of the proposed Revolution Wind project off the coast of Rhode Island with as many as 100 turbines totalling not more than 880 MW.
The Department of the Interior’s (DoI) Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) initiated a public comment period in relation to this scheme on September 2, 2022, during which it got a total of 124 comments from Federal, Tribal, state, and local government agencies, as well as non-governmental organisations and the public.
“BOEM used the feedback we received from Tribal Nations, industry, ocean users, communities, and stakeholders to help inform our decisions throughout the environmental review process and ensure that we are addressing potential impacts,” BOEM director Elizabeth Klein said in a statement.
The announcement also mentioned that the agency has developed a preferred alternative with fewer turbines to cut impacts to visual resources and benthic habitat, and enables ocean co-use. As a next step, it intends to issue a Record of Decision on whether to approve, approve with modification, or disapprove the project this summer.
The Notice of Availability for the Final Environmental Impact Statement (Final EIS) for the Revolution Wind project will be published in the Federal Register on July 21, 2023.
The project, developed by a joint venture of Denmark’s Ørsted A/S (CPH:ORSTED) and US utility Eversource Energy (NYSE:ES), is planned for an area that is 15 miles southeast of Point Judith. If approved and built, the proposed offshore wind farm could power more than 300,000 homes, according to BOEM estimates. It would represent the fourth commercial-scale offshore wind project on the US Outer Continental Shelf cleared by the Biden-Harris administration.
In May, Ørsted agreed to buy Eversource's 50% stake in the federal offshore wind lease area in the US Northeast that includes Revolution Wind.
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