Beacon Wind submitted its construction and operations plan (COP) to the U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) on June 5.
BOEM on June 29 announced it would initiate a review of the plan, inviting public comments through July 31 as it prepares an environmental impact statement for the project.
It’s the 11th offshore wind COP review BOEM has started since President Biden took office, with a goal of 30 GW of offshore capacity by 2030. But that burst of regulatory enthusiasm has not yet translated to a burst of construction activity.
Two small-scale projects totaling 42 MW are in operation and two utility-scale projects are under construction, both neighbors of Beacon.
Beacon itself has been in the pipeline for more than four years, and developers do not expect it to produce power until 2028. Nor do they expect to be able to build the first phase under the financial terms of the contract they signed with the state of New York in January 2021.
The development team of Equinor and bp petitioned in June 2023 for inflation adjustments for their Beacon Wind 1, Empire Wind 1 and Empire Wind 2 projects, saying the world had changed drastically and costs had risen dramatically.
Ørsted and Eversource submitted a similar petition the same day for their Sunrise Wind project in New York. (See OSW Developers Seeking more Money from New York.)
Also, developers are trying to back out of power purchase agreements for two large Massachusetts OSW projects for the same reasons, and there are signs of financial strain in some other states’ OSW development portfolios.
Beacon occupies Lease Area OCS-A520 — 128,811 acres on the Outer Continental Shelf south of Massachusetts and east of New York. Equinor won a December 2018 BOEM auction with a $135 million bid, and the lease was executed in March 2019.
The developers in January submitted a proposal for Beacon Wind 2 in New York’s 2022 offshore wind solicitation, which has yet to result in contract awards. In this round, bidders had the option of including an inflation adjustment mechanism to address any cost increases.
BOEM says the Beacon Wind lease area holds the potential for at least 2,430 MW of nameplate generation. Beacon Wind 1 is proposed at 1,260 MW.
“BOEM is advancing the administration’s ambitious energy goals while remaining diligent in our efforts to avoid, minimize and mitigate impacts to ocean users and the marine environment,” BOEM Director Elizabeth Klein said in a news release. “As part of our environmental review process, we seek input from tribes, our government partners, the fishing community and other ocean users to inform our next steps.”
In-person public meetings for the environmental review are scheduled for July 18 and 20 in Dartmouth, Mass., and Queens, N.Y., respectively. Virtual meetings are scheduled for July 13 and 26. Details on the meetings and on submitting comment electronically are posted on the Beacon Wind page of BOEM’s website.
The Northeast Atlantic Coast is the early focus of the offshore wind industry, with clusters of multiple wind farms proposed east of Long Island/south of Massachusetts, as well as south of Long Island/east of New Jersey.
BOEM’s previously completed environmental impact statements for other wind projects in the region have predicted a potentially significant impact on marine life, and on area fisheries. But much remains unknown, due to the lack of operational data about offshore wind power projects individually and collectively.
The Northeast Fisheries Science Center of the National Ocean and Atmospheric Administration on June 15 announced a five-year partnership with the University of Rhode Island to explore the impacts of offshore wind on marine ecosystems and the people who live near or work on the ocean.
