The Interior Department has now approved more than 19 gigawatts of offshore wind energy.

The Biden-Harris administration today announced the approval of the SouthCoast Wind Project – the nation’s 11th commercial-scale offshore wind energy project approved under President Biden’s leadership. With today’s approval, the Department and its Bureau of Ocean Energy Management have approved over 19 gigawatts (GW) of clean energy from offshore wind energy projects – enough to power more than 6 million homes.

The SouthCoast Wind Project is expected to generate up to 2.4 GW of offshore wind energy for Massachusetts and Rhode Island, enough to power more than 840,000 homes. The project area covers approximately 127,388 acres and about 26 nautical miles (nm) south of Martha’s Vineyard and 20 nm south of Nantucket, Massachusetts.

The project, as approved, includes the construction of up to 141 wind turbine generators and up to five offshore substation platforms located at a maximum of 143 positions, and up to eight offshore export cables potentially making landfall in Brayton Point or Falmouth, Massachusetts. Compared to SouthCoast’s original proposed project, the selected alternative removes up to six wind turbine positions in the northeastern portion of the Lease Area to reduce potential impacts on foraging habitat and potential displacement of wildlife from this habitat adjacent to Nantucket Shoals.

On November 8, 2024, BOEM announced the final Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for the proposed project, which analyzed the potential environmental impacts of the activities outlined in the project’s construction and operations plan and considered reasonable alternatives. BOEM facilitated three virtual public meetings in March 2023 to collect important feedback on the SouthCoast Wind draft EIS from Tribal Nations, local community members, commercial fishing interests, and other ocean users. BOEM developed required measures to avoid, minimize, and mitigate the project’s potential environmental impacts, based on the comprehensive review and feedback received during the environmental review process.

The “Notice of Availability of a Joint Record of Decision for SouthCoast Wind Energy LLC’s Proposed SouthCoast Wind Energy Project Offshore Massachusetts and Rhode Island” will be published in the Federal Register in the coming days. For more information on the SouthCoast Wind Project, visit BOEM’s website.