US federal regulators overseeing a lease auction for the New York offshore wind area have issued a revised environmental assessment.
The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management this week also released a ‘finding of no significant impact’.
The finding allows BOEM to issue a commercial lease and developers to conduct site characterization activities, such as geophysical, geotechnical, archaeological and biological surveys, and site assessment activities, including meteorological towers or buoys, on the outer continental shelf off Long Island.
The 32,000-hectare site is about 2% smaller than initially proposed. BOEM removed about 700 hectares after a seafloor feature known as the Cholera Bank was identified as a sensitive habitat.
The 800MW-plus site has attracted more than a dozen developers as well as the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority.
BOEM plans to hold the sale on 15 December.
Image: Block Island, the first offshore wind farm in the US (Deepwater Wind)
