Abstract
US Wind is developing the Maryland Offshore Wind Project1 1 The Project includes MarWin, a wind farm of approximately 300 MW for which US Wind was awarded Offshore Renewable Energy Credits (ORECs) in 2017 by the state of Maryland; Momentum Wind, up to 1205.4 MW, which US Wind bid into a second round Maryland OREC process in 2021; and any subsequent development within the Lease area. (the Project), an offshore wind project of up to 2 gigawatts within OCS-A 0490 (the Lease), an area off the coast of Maryland on the Outer Continental Shelf. US Wind obtained the Lease in 2014 when the company won an auction for two leases from the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) which in 2018 were combined into the Lease. The Project will include as many as 121 wind turbine generators (WTG), up to four (4) offshore substations (OSS), and one (1) met tower in the roughly 80,000-acre Lease area. The Project will be interconnected to the onshore electric grid by up to four new 230 kV export cables into a substation in Delaware.
This Avian Risk Assessment identifies the avian species found in the Lease area by prior studies. It also examines their risk of exposure to collision with the Project’s wind turbine blades to support evaluation of potential impacts and proposed mitigations.