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Partnering with WREN, questionnaires are sent to offshore wind energy developers around the world who are involved in environmental monitoring. This page provides contextual project information and highlights environmental monitoring, providing links to available data and reports. Content is updated annually.

Bluepoint Wind

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Wind Project Site

Title: Bluepoint Wind
Status:
Canceled
Project Manager:
Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP), Ocean Winds
Info Last Updated:
Contact:
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Website:
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Details

Technology:
Fixed Offshore Wind
Project Scale:
Commercial Farm
Installed Capacity:
2400 MW
Physical Site:
Shallow Water (<60m), Marine, Soft-Bottom Habitat
Country:
United States of America
State:
New York

Description

Bluepoint Wind was an offshore wind partnership between Ocean Winds (OW) and Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP) that was in the early stages of development. It was located off the coast of New Jersey and New York. Bluepoint Wind's goal was to responsibly develop an offshore wind farm with an installed capacity of 2.4 GW which would have been capable of powering up to 1 million residential homes and help New York and New Jersey meet their clean energy and carbon emissions reduction goals. Bluepoint Wind voluntarily terminated its offshore wind lease (Lease No. OCS-A 0537) in the New York Bight and stated it would not pursue any new offshore wind developments in the United States. Under the terms of the termination agreement, Global Infrastructure Partners (a part of BlackRock), a 50% owner of Bluepoint Wind, committed to invest up to $765 million — the original bid amount for the lease — into a U.S.-based liquefied natural gas (LNG) facility, following which Interior cancelled the lease and reimbursed the bid payment. See the doi.gov article for more information.

Location

Bluepoint Wind was located 70 km off the New York coast and 98 km off the New Jersey coast and consisted of a lease area of 289 square km.

Project Timeline

  • 2025: Bluepoint Wind Voluntarily Terminated its Offshore Wind Lease. The Department of the Interior announced that Bluepoint Wind had voluntarily terminated its offshore wind lease (Lease No. OCS-A 0537) in the New York Bight.
  • March 2023: Bluepoint Wind submitted a letter indicating they would not be conducting site assessment activities and would instead be using existing data. The letter was under BOEM review.
  • September 2022: Ocean Wind East announced the name of its New York Bight project as Bluepoint Wind.
  • February 2022: Ocean Wind East was awarded a lease area in the New York Bight Offshore Wind Energy Auction.

Licensing Information

A range of regulatory authorities at the federal, state and local level were involved in the Bluepoint Wind project. Federally, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) led the offshore leasing and permitting process, while the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers oversaw marine species protection and coastal construction permits. In New York, state agencies involved included the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (NYSDEC) and the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA). In New Jersey, relevant agencies included the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP) and the New Jersey Department of Transportation (NJDOT).

More information can be found on the Bluepoint Wind's United States Federal Permitting Dashboard and BOEM's Bluepoint Wind Page.

NOAA Fisheries has developed Offshore Wind Lease Reports that summarize previous fishing activity within each offshore wind lease area along the U.S. Atlantic Coast. View Descriptions of Selected Fishery Landings and Estimates of Vessel Revenue from Areas: A Planning-level Assessment and Descriptions of Selected Fishery Landings and Estimates of Recreational Party and Charter Vessel Revenue from Areas: A Planning-level Assessment for Bluepoint Wind (OCS-A-0537) here.

Environmental Monitoring: Bluepoint Wind

ID Phase Stressor & Receptor Design and Methods Results Publications Data
2078636 Baseline Bats Bat survey 
Ultrasonic detectors installed on survey vessels will be used for biological surveys.  		Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) 2021

No data publicly available 
2078635 Baseline Birds Avian surveys 
To conduct visual avian surveys from a boat on a monthly basis for two to three years. Plane-based aerial avian surveys to be conducted two days per month for two to three years.   		Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) 2021

No data publicly available 
2078637 Baseline Fish, Marine Mammals, Reptiles, Sea Turtles Marine fauna surveys 
Plane-based and/or vessel surveys will be conducted possible concurrent with other biological surveys but not concurrent with any geophysical or geotechnical survey work. Two years of surveys will be conducted to cover spatial, temporal, and inter-annual variance in the area of potential effect.  		Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) 2021

No data publicly available 
2078632 Baseline Physical Environment Geophysical Surveys 
Multiple vessels will conduct geophysical surveys in the Bluepoint Wind lease area starting in March 2023 through September 2023. Geophysical surveys will be used to characterize the seafloor and sub-bottom features using acoustic and magnetic technologies that use sound to chart the seabed, sub-seabed, and magnetic anomalies.  		Complete 
Data collected indicated that the area surveyed were composed of soft-bottom substrata that were predominately firm sands and occupied by diverse benthic biotic communities. The primary biotic community was Echinocardium bed. No sensitive habitats were observed.  		Bluepoint Wind 2023, Bluepoint Wind 2023

No data publicly available 
2078633 Baseline Physical Environment Benthic Surveys 
From June to August 2017, NYSERDA conducted multibeam echosounder and benthic (sediment profile imaging/plan view) surveys on the NY Bight.  		Complete 
Most prevalent bedforms observed across the survey area were sand waves, sand bars, and ripples. Surface sediments were generally firm, fine, and medium sands.   		Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) 2021, INSPIRE Environmental 2017

No data publicly available 
2078634 Baseline Physical Environment Site characterization surveys, high-resolution geophysical surveys 
Surveys would likely begin within one year following the execution of the lease and continue on an intermittent basis for the following five years leading up to the preparation and submittal of the construction and operations plan. Would survey the entire proposed lease area during the five-year site assessment term to collect required geophysical and geotechnical information for siting of commercial facilities. Sub-bottom sampling at every potential wind turbine location.  		Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) 2021

No data publicly available