Abstract
On September 12, 2013, the Department of Interior’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) and Deepwater Wind New England, LLC (Deepwater Wind) executed two commercial leases on the outer continental shelf (OCS) in federal waters off the coast of Rhode Island and Massachusetts (Renewable Energy Lease Numbers OCS-A 0486 and OCS-A 0487) for the purpose of the siting and development of offshore wind energy. Renewable Energy Lease Number OCS-A 0486, referred to as the “North Lease,” is approximately 97,498 acres; and Renewable Energy Lease Number OCS-A 0487, referred to as the “South Lease” is approximately 67,252 acres. Both the North and South Lease areas are located within the area designated by BOEM as the Rhode Island-Massachusetts (RI-MA) Wind Energy Area (WEA).
Deepwater Wind has prepared this Site Assessment Plan (SAP) for the North Lease in support of the installation and operation of a stand-alone offshore meteorological data collection system referred to as the AXYS Floating Light Detection and Ranging 6M buoy (FLiDAR 6M [Met Buoy]).