Maryland Offshore Wind Project

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Other Agencies with Actions or Authorizations: Environmental Protection Agency Department of the Army, US Army Corps of Engineers - Regulatory Department of the Army, US Army Corps of Engineers - Civil Works Department of Commerce, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Department of the Interior, Fish and Wildlife Service Description: The Maryland Offshore Wind Project involves construction of a renewable energy generation facility and the associated electricity transmission infrastructure to connect the generation to the regional electric grid.  US Wind is proposing the development and eventual decommissioning of the Maryland Offshore Wind Project (the Project), an offshore wind energy project (including an Operations and Maintenance Facility) of up to approximately 2 gigawatts of nameplate capacity within OCS-A 0490 (the Lease). The Lease area covers 79,707 acres with the western edge located approximately 18.5 km (11.5 miles) off the coast of Maryland on the Outer Continental Shelf. Under a Project Design Envelope (PDE) approach, the Project could include as many as 121 wind turbine generators (WTG), up to four offshore substations (OSS), and one meteorological tower (Met Tower) in the Lease area, with a total of 126 structure in a gridded array pattern distributed across the Lease area. The gridded array comprises 13 east-west rows with 0.87 mile spacing between structures, and 18 columns oriented approximately north-northeast to south-southwest with 1.17 mile spacing. Inter-array cables would run in a radial fashion from the WTGs toward the OSS locations. The Met Tower is proposed in a location along the southern edge of the Lease area. Up to 4 offshore export cables are included in the PDE. The export cables consist of an offshore portion, the Offshore Export Cables, from the Lease area to the landing location, through a transition vault to the onshore portion, and the Onshore Export Cables that connect to the Point of Interconnection (POI). The preferred route of the offshore export cable, known as Offshore Export Cable Corridor 1, would exit the Lease area from the northwestern portion of the Lease area, and traverse northeasterly to shore making landfall south of the Indian River Inlet at 3R’s Beach in the Delaware Seashore State Park. From there the onshore export submarine cables would extend through Indian River Bay via Onshore Export Cable Corridor 1 and connect to the POI at the Delmarva Power and Light Indian River Substation near Millsboro, Delaware. Additional options within the PDE include the offshore export cables making landfall at the Tower Road parking lot, north of Indian River inlet, and crossing over land to the Indian River Substation or alternate POIs. The PDE also includes land-based cable corridors, if a terrestrial route is pursued, which would be co-located in existing rights-of-way. The Operations and Maintenance Facility (O&M Facility) is proposed to be in Ocean City, Maryland, and would include a 15,000 square foot combined office and warehouse building with associated parking, outdoor storage, and crew comfort and support areas to stage operations and maintenance personnel. The O&M Facility would include crew transfer vessel (CTV) quayside and berthing areas, and would also house a Marine Coordination Center, which would serve to monitor the status of the WTGs and OSSs via SCADA systems, plan maintenance operations and dispatch CTVs, monitor marine activity in the Project area, coordinate drills and exercises, and communicate with outside agencies.

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