SouthCoast Wind Project Approved By Biden Administration

The proposed SouthCoast Wind project off Nantucket was approved on Friday by President Joe Biden's administration.

The 2.4 GW offshore wind farm is slated to be built 20 nautical miles southeast of the island. As approved, SouthCoast Wind will include 141 wind turbines and five offshore substation platforms, with undersea cables extending west of Nantucket and making landfall in Brayton Point and Falmouth.

Each of SouthCoast Wind's turbines will stand 1,066 feet tall - even higher than Vineyard Wind's turbines, which are 853 feet tall. The project recently secured key state permits and completed an environmental review by the federal government, even as SouthCoast Wind opponents argued the permitting process was being rushed before the Biden administration leaves the White House next month.

Despite the approval on Friday by the federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM), SouthCoast Wind still faces an uncertain future with incoming President Donald Trump's vow to end offshore wind developments "on day one." How Trump's pledge will affect the 11 commercial-scale offshore wind projects approved under President Biden that are in various stages of permitting or construction remains unclear.

“Today’s favorable Record of Decision by BOEM is an important milestone for SouthCoast Wind," said Michael Brown, CEO of SouthCoast Wind. "(The) Record of Decision brings us a step closer to delivering abundant, domestic energy to New England’s homes and businesses. We anticipate that our project will continue to move forward to supply abundant clean energy to meet the growing demand for electricity in New England.”

The company behind SouthCoast Wind is called Ocean Winds, an international corporation created as a 50-50 joint venture owned by EDP Renewables, a subsidiary of the EDP Group, Portugal's largest utility company, and ENGIE, a French multinational electric utility company. They believe the project will produce enough energy to power more than 840,000 homes.

Read BOEM's Record Of Decision by clicking here

A company spokesperson, Joyce McMahon, told the Current on Friday that SouthCoast Wind had not yet selected a turbine model or manufacturer for the project.

Over the past month, Nantucket Select Board members and the town's special counsel for offshore wind matters, Cultural Heritage Partners, have been engaged with SouthCoast Wind in the Section 106 process of the National Historic Preservation Act, which deals with the impacts of energy projects on historic properties and gives the town standing with BOEM, as the island is a registered National Historic Landmark.

Earlier this month, the town objected to BOEM's final mitigation proposal for SouthCoast Wind: $300,000 for historic property surveys and archaeological assessments to limit the impact of the offshore energy development on the island and a pledge to fund some of the town's proposed coastal resiliency projects for an undisclosed amount.

"We will decide how to proceed with an appeal," Select Board chair Brooke Mohr said on Dec. 11. "We have put our stake in the ground, that gives us something to appeal about."

Mohr said on Friday, however, that the Select Board had not yet taken any formal vote on whether to proceed with an appeal.

The town stated that BOEM had failed to address "critical deficiencies" in the Section 106 process, including:

• Inadequate mitigation for the adverse visual effects on Nantucket Historic District National Historic Landmark.
• No legitimate plan to address future turbine failures, which could harm our beaches and environment.
• Insufficient decommissioning funding to ensure timely removal of turbines at the end of their useful life.

The final environmental impact statement for SouthCoast Wind released by BOEM last month concluded that the visibility of SouthCoast Wind's turbines "would have long-term, continuous, and moderate impacts on the Nantucket Historic District."

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) recently completed its final biological opinion on SouthCoast Wind, evaluating the project against the requirements of the Endangered Species Act.

"NOAA Fisheries concluded the proposed action is likely to adversely affect, but is not likely to jeopardize, the continued existence of any species of ESA-listed whales, sea turtles, or fish," the federal agency wrote. "It is not anticipated to adversely affect any designated critical habitat. NOAA Fisheries does not anticipate serious injuries to or mortalities of any ESA-listed whale, including the North Atlantic right whale. The proposed project includes a number of measures designed to minimize, monitor, and report effects to ESA-listed species...With the incorporation of the proposed mitigation measures, all effects to North Atlantic right whales will be limited to behavioral disturbance that constitutes “harassment” under the ESA, but not “harm.”

While some groups, including the Nantucket-based ACK For Whales, believe the ongoing development of offshore wind energy facilities along the East Coast is a significant cause of whale mortality, NOAA has stated, "At this point, there is no scientific evidence that noise resulting from offshore wind site characterization surveys could potentially cause whale deaths. There are no known links between large whale deaths and ongoing offshore wind activities."

On Friday, ACK For Whales stated that the approval of SouthCoast Wind showed that the Biden administration "continues to ignore the environment, coastal communities, economics and critically endangered species. An utter disgrace."