Overview

The maps in this theme show the locations of proposed and existing energy facilities and transmission infrastructure areas at various stages of planning, review, permitting, and operation. Data shown in these maps are from authoritative sources including the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM), Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), the New England states, and marinecadastre.gov.

Data Considerations

Planning Areas include the active renewable energy lease areas in the Atlantic Offshore Continental Shelf (OCS) and the locations that have been identified by their respective states or the U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) as high in renewable energy potential and potentially suitable for offshore development. 

Projects in Review are sites that are being reviewed and considered but have not yet been approved for development. At this review stage, project-specific data, such as proposed cable routes and/or project layouts may be available and shown on the map. 

Permitted Projects are sites that have received a permit and may have begun the installation of infrastructure.

Transmission data pertain to existing onshore and offshore cables (for conventional and renewable energy transmission as well as telecommunications) and pipelines that are part of the region’s energy infrastructure. Information about the locations of critical infrastructure is essential to mitigate hazards to those sites and to inform potential future power generation and distribution scenarios.

Infrastructure data relate to actively deployed and operational conventional and renewable energy installations. Conventional power generation facilities include coal, oil, gas, hydro, and nuclear plants. In the renewable energy category, data include turbine locations and cable routes. Information about the locations of critical infrastructure is essential to mitigate hazards to those sites and to inform potential future power generation and distribution scenarios.

Status

The status of these planning and permitting areas change frequently, and the public is encouraged to review specific details for each project closely.

Support for Regional Ocean Planning

For information about how these data and maps were developed with stakeholder input and will be used to support regional ocean planning, please see the 2016 Northeast Ocean Plan at www.neoceanplanning.org.