Abstract
This report supplements the Kitty Hawk North Wind Construction and Operations Plan.
Kitty Hawk Wind, LLC (the Company), a wholly owned subsidiary of Avangrid Renewables, LLC, proposes to construct, own, and operate the Kitty Hawk North Wind Project (the Project), which will be located in the designated Renewable Energy Lease Area OCS-A 0508 (Lease Area). The Commercial Lease of Submerged Lands for Renewable Energy Development on the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) was awarded through the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) competitive renewable energy lease auction of the Wind Energy Area (WEA) offshore of North Carolina. The Lease Area covers 49,536 hectares (ha) and is located approximately 44 kilometers (km) offshore of Corolla, North Carolina.
At this time, the Company proposes to develop approximately 40 percent of the Lease Area in the northwest corner closest to shore (19,441 ha, referred to as the Wind Development Area). The Project will connect from the electrical service platform (ESP) through offshore export cables (within a designated corridor) and onshore export cables to the new onshore substation in the City of Virginia Beach, Virginia, where the renewable electricity generated will be transmitted to the electric grid. For the purposes of this Essential Fish Habitat Assessment (EFHA), the review area includes the portions of the Wind Development Area and offshore export cable corridor that could be directly or indirectly affected by the construction, operations and maintenance (O&M), and decommissioning of the Project.