U.S. Interior to Conduct Review of First Proposed Wind Energy Project Offshore Maryland

The U.S. Department of the Interior on June 6, 2022 announced that the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management will perform an environmental assessment of the first proposed wind energy project offshore Maryland. Key parts of the proposal consist of construction and operation of an offshore wind project with a total capacity between 1.1 and 2 gigawatts of clean, renewable wind energy to the Delmarva Peninsula and the installation of up to 121 turbines, four offshore substation platforms, one meteorological tower and up to four offshore export cable corridors. This project reinforces the Biden administration’s goal of deploying 30 gigawatts of offshore wind energy capacity by 2030.

The agency is expected to publish a notice of intent to plan an environmental impact statement for the construction and operations Plan submitted by US Wind LLC. As it stands, the lease area is around 10 maritime miles off the coast of Ocean City, Maryland and approximately nine maritime miles offshore Sussex County, Delaware.

Under the Biden administration, this is the 10th offshore wind energy review. If authorized, the development and production periods of the US Wind project could provide for up to an estimated 2,679 jobs annually over seven years. The project would be capable of powering up to 650,000 homes each year in Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia.

The department will receive comments until July 8, 2022, as part of the process to establish the scope of its environmental review.  The public comment period will aid in identifying what the bureau should consider as part of its environmental review of US Wind’s plan.

Following the comment period, the suggestions raised will be used to identify issues and potential alternatives for consideration in the US Wind draft environmental review.