The Interior Department’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) announced a new priority Wind Energy Area in the New York Bight—an area of shallow waters between Long Island and the New Jersey coast.
This area, according to recent study from Wood Mackenzie, can support up to 25,000 development and construction jobs from 2022 to 2030, as well as an additional 7,000 jobs in communities supported by this development.
The study indicates the New York Bight lease area also has the potential to support up to 4,000 operations and maintenance jobs annually, and approximately 2,000 community jobs, in the years following.
This new Wind Energy Area is adjacent to the greater metropolitan Tri-State area— the largest metropolitan population center in the United States that is home to more than 20 million people and their energy needs.
The next step is for BOEM to publish a proposed sale notice, followed by a formal public comment period and a lease sale in late 2021 or early 2022.
The Department of Interior, the Department of Energy, and Department of Commerce are announcing a shared goal to deploy 30 gigawatts (GW) of offshore wind in the United States by 2030.
