Commercial Lease
On Jan. 29, 2015, BOEM held a competitive lease sale (i.e., auction) for the Wind Energy Area offshore Massachusetts. The auction lasted two rounds. RES America Developments, Inc. was identified as the winner of Lease OCS-A 0500 (187,523 acres) and Offshore MW LLC was identified as the winner of Lease Area OCS-A 0501 (166,886 acres). The commercial wind energy leases were signed by BOEM on March 23, 2015, and went into effect on April 1, 2015.
On May 14, 2015, BOEM executed an amendment to commercial lease OCS-A 0500 to correct Addendum "A" of the lease and update Section 20 of the lease.
On May 27, 2015, BOEM received an application to assign 100% of commercial lease OCS-A 0500 to DONG Energy Massachusetts (U.S.) LLC. BOEM approved the assignment on June 12, 2015. Note: DONG Energy has since renamed its American subsidiary as Bay State Wind LLC.
DONG Energy changed its name to Ørsted in 2017.
For up-to-date leasing information, including the original lease and any lease amendments that may have occurred since initial lease execution, visit the Lease and Grant Information page.
What's New?
Bay State Wind LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Ørsted, proposes to develop the Starboard Wind Project within the area of the U.S. Outer Continental Shelf covered by U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) Renewable Lease No. OCS-A 0500 (Lease Area). The Starboard Wind Project represents an update to the 2019 Bay State Wind project.
On June 29, 2017, BOEM approved the Site Assessment Plan (SAP) for Lease OCS-A 0500 (Bay State Wind). The SAP approval allows for the installation of two floating light and detection ranging buoys (FLIDARs) and one metocean/current buoy. For additional information, please find the approved SAP below:
Bay State Wind requested a 1-year extension for submitting it's SAP, which BOEM approved. The SAP was filed in December 2016, with revisions filed in March and April 2017. BOEM determined the SAP was complete on May 1, 2017.
The Construction and Operations Plan (COP) informs the basis for developing the draft Environmental Impact Statement (Draft EIS). The Starboard Wind Project represents an update to the Bay State Wind COP, which was submitted in 2019.
Lease-specific environmental review based on the COP will be updated here.