The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) has recently wrapped up its environmental review of Beacon Wind's proposal to test suction bucket foundations on its lease area offshore Massachusetts.
Following a thorough analysis in the environmental assessment, BOEM concluded that the proposed testing would not result in significant impacts on environmental resources. Suction bucket foundations offer an alternative foundation type that allows turbine installation without the need for pile driving.
BOEM carefully examined Beacon Wind's proposal to conduct 35 deployments and removals of a single suction bucket foundation at 26 locations within its lease area. Beacon Wind's aim is to gather information supporting the engineering design of wind turbine and offshore substation foundations for a potential future offshore wind project. The adoption of this new technology could help minimise underwater noise during installation and provide more flexibility regarding supply chain constraints.
The proposed Beacon Wind project is located approximately 17 nautical miles (nm) south of Nantucket, Massachusetts, and approximately 52 nm east of Montauk, New York. Beacon Wind's future project proposal includes the construction and operation of two wind energy facilities (Beacon Wind 1 and Beacon Wind 2) with a total capacity of at least 2,430MW.
