Vineyard Wind 1

Lease-Visual-map

In May 2021, the Departments of the Interior and Commerce announced the approval of the construction and operation of the first large-scale, offshore wind project in the United States, located offshore Massachusetts. The 800-megawatt Vineyard Wind 1 Offshore Wind Energy Project will be located approximately 12 nautical miles offshore Martha's Vineyard and 12 nautical miles offshore Nantucket in the northern portion of Vineyard Wind’s lease area (OCS-A 0501).

U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Record of Decision Supplements

Final Environmental Impact Statement

BOEM has completed the environmental review of Vineyard Wind's proposed offshore wind project. Please find the four volumes of the Final Environmental Impact Statement below:

 

 

On May 10, 2018, The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management approved the Site Assessment Plan (SAP) for Lease OCS-A 0501 (Vineyard Wind). The SAP approval allows for the installation of up to two Fugro SEAWATCH Wind LiDAR metocean buoys.  For additional information, please find the approved SAP below:

Vineyard Wind submitted its COP in December 2017. On December 1, 2020, BOEM received a letter from Vineyard Wind withdrawing its Construction and Operations Plan.

Archaeological Resources Identification Surveys

As part of the COP submission, Vineyard Wind conducted a number of archaeological resources identification surveys onshore, in state waters, and on the Outer Continental Shelf. Vineyard Wind prepared multiple reports documenting this work and reporting the locations of these archaeological resources to BOEM, in partial fulfillment of BOEM's compliance with 36 CFR 800. Summaries of these reports are now available to the public. 

Vineyard Wind requested a 1-year extension for submitting its SAP, which BOEM approved.  Vineyard Wind initially filed the SAP in March 2017, followed by revisions in July, October, and November 2017.  BOEM deemed the SAP complete and sufficient on November 21, 2017.

Draft Environmental Impact Statement 

On December 7, 2018, BOEM published a Notice of Availability (NOA) for the Draft Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for the Construction and Operations Plan (COP) submitted by Vineyard Wind. As part of this process, BOEM held public hearings from February 11-15, 2019 in Rhode Island and Massachusetts. The public comment period closed on February 22, 2019.

The input received via this process will be used to inform preparation of the Final Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS).

Supplement to the Draft Environmental Impact Statement

On June 12, 2020, as a result of the comments received during the National Environmental Policy Act process, and in coordination with cooperating agencies, the Draft Environmental Impact Statement was supplemented. The supplement analyzes reasonably foreseeable effects from an expanded cumulative activities scenario for offshore wind development. It also considers previously unavailable fishing data, a new transit lane alternative, and changes to the Construction and Operations Plan since publication of the Draft EIS. This supplement was informed by comments from a wide variety of stakeholders including state and local governments, federal agencies, industry, and the public.

Vineyard Wind Record of Decision (ROD)

U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Record of Decision Supplements

BOEM has completed the environmental review of Vineyard Wind's proposed offshore wind project. Please find the four volumes of the Final Environmental Impact Statement below:

On December 1, 2020, BOEM received a letter from Vineyard Wind withdrawing its Construction and Operations Plan.

On January 22, 2021, Vineyard Wind submitted a letter rescinding its temporary Construction and Operations Plan (COP) withdrawal and requesting that BOEM resume review of the 800-megawatt wind energy project offshore Massachusetts.

Vineyard Wind had paused the Department’s consideration of its proposal while it reviewed whether the use of Haliade-X turbines warranted any modifications to their COP.

In February 2021, BOEM resumed the environmental review of the Vineyard Wind Project and proceeded with the development of a Final Environmental Impact Statement.

On March 30, 2018, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) announced its Notice of Intent (NOI) to prepare an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for the Construction and Operations Plan (COP) submitted by Vineyard Wind LLC (Vineyard Wind) that would allow it to construct and operate an 800 megawatt (MW) wind energy facility offshore Massachusetts.

The publication of the NOI opened a 30-day public comment period, which closed on April 30, 2018. Comments on the NOI can be found here. During the 30-day public comment period, BOEM held five public scoping meetings.

BOEM prepared a scoping report to review and catalogue the information and materials provided to BOEM during the scoping period for the proposed Vineyard Wind project. This report identifies substantive comments for consideration in the development of the EIS, and categorizes them based on the applicable resource areas or NEPA topics.

As part of the COP submission, Vineyard Wind prepared visual simulations of what their project would look like from various locations. These simulations were prepared as part of the larger Visual Impact Assessment which is Appendix III-H.a of the COP. For easier access, please find the project area of potential effects (APE) as well as visual simulations from Nantucket below.

In addition, Vineyard Wind prepared a night time video simulation and (Summer, Fall) daytime video simulations to show what the proposed offshore wind facility would look like under various conditions.

These video simulations were developed based on the draft Construction and Operations Plan submitted by Vineyard Wind in 2017. Note that this plan did not include mid-tower lighting on the turbines.