US starts permitting for 800MW Kitty Hawk offshore wind farm off North Carolina

The US Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) plans to carry out an environmental review of Avangrid’s 800MW-plus Kitty Hawk North wind farm off North Carolina.

If built, the proposed project would consist of up to 69 turbines – implying a power rating of at least 11.6MW – and would be built in a 202km² area, 43km from Corolla, North Carolina. The project would be built in a 495km² lease area, Avangrid won at auction in 2017 for just over $9 million.

It would connect onshore in Virginia Beach and eventually provide power to the neighbouring state of Virginia.

Therefore, the project would count towards both North Carolina’s offshore wind capacity target and Virginia’s offshore wind procurement target, according to BOEM.

BOEM has published a notice of intent to prepare an environmental impact statement in the federal register, launching a public consultation period lasting until the end of August. It will also review Avangrid’s construction and operations plan for the project.

North Carolina aims to have 2.8GW of offshore wind capacity off the state’s coast by 2030 and 8GW by 2040.

Meanwhile, Virginia aims to produce 100% of its electricity with renewable sources, including 5.2GW of offshore wind by 2035.

Avangrid is already helping to develop 800MW Vineyard Wind 1 Vineyard Wind 1 (800MW) Offshoreoff Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts, USA, North America Click to see full details, which is due to be the US’ first commercial-scale offshore wind farm. It is also developing the 804MW Park City Wind (Vineyard Wind South phase 1) Park City Wind (Vineyard Wind South phase 1) (804MW) OffshoreMassachusetts, USA, North America Click to see full details project off Connecticut and a lease area capable of supporting 3.5GW off Massachusetts and Rhode Island.

The developer eventually aims to deploy up to 2.5GW of offshore wind capacity in the 495km² Kitty Hawk lease area off North Carolina.

BOEM has launched leasing processes for offshore wind farms off California and Texas, and permitting processes for projects off Virginia, Rhode Island and Massachusetts.