Overview

This map shows the locations of renewable energy project areas at various stages of operation, permitting, and planning. The generalized project categories are presented in the map legend.

Data Considerations

Operational Installations are sites that are actively deployed and operational. The Cobscook Bay OGCEN Power Project was deployed off Eastport, Maine, in 2012 and was the first tidal installation in North America. The Block Island Wind Farm became operational in late 2016 as the first commercial offshore wind farm in the United States.

Permitted Projects are sites that have received a permit and may have begun the installation of infrastructure. The Roosevelt Island Tidal Project in the East River in New York has a pilot license from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to develop a 1 MW hydrokinetic turbine.

Projects in Review are sites that are being reviewed and have not yet been approved for development. The Muskeget Tidal Energy Project in Massachusetts is a hydrokinetic project that has been in pre-filing for a FERC license. The Maine Aqua Ventus Site is a proposed floating offshore wind demonstration project. Atlantic Link is a proposed 375-mile subsea transmission line that would extend from St. John, New Brunswick, to Plymouth, Massachusetts, delivering electricity from land-based wind and hydro facilities to Massachusetts. The South Fork Wind Farm is a proposed wind farm and cable route southeast of Block Island, Rhode Island. The Vineyard Wind project is a proposed wind farm and cable route south of Martha’s Vineyard.

Planning and Lease Areas are 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 but have not undergone any formal permitting procedures. In federal waters, this includes lease areas and wind planning areas offshore Rhode Island, Massachusetts, and New York where leases have been awarded and may be awarded in the future. In state waters, this includes the Block Island Renewable Energy Zone, Maine Ocean Energy Demonstration Sites, and Massachusetts State Wind Energy Areas. This category also includes preliminary permits for marine hydrokinetic sites that are awarded by FERC.

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.