About The Project

Responsible Siting

The site was defined through careful planning and review by the U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) and the project developer, Avangrid, including extensive environmental studies and public engagement processes.

Through a competitive auction conducted by the U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) in 2017, Kitty Hawk Wind, LLC, a subsidiary of Avangrid, secured an offshore lease area to develop the Kitty Hawk Wind project.

BOEM delineated this lease area after a four-year evaluation process (2011-2015), involving multiple federal and state agencies, while accepting public comment. This process included review of fish habitat and fisheries conflict areas, military use and commercial shipping routes, environmental review including avian and bat data, benthic habitat, proximity to National Park Service property, and more. BOEM concluded the environmental assessment with a Finding of No Significant Impact from this issuance of the lease in 2015.

The 200 square mile Wind Energy Area (WEA) was selected to minimize impacts to other users of the ocean (such as the military, commercial and recreational fishing, and shipping industries) as well as to minimize impacts to the marine environment and coastal communities. Avangrid began studying the WEA in detail after acquiring the lease in 2017. Study of the area is ongoing as part of the federal permitting process to further refine the design, construction, and operation of the offshore wind project.

Kitty Hawk Wind is designed to deliver clean, reliable electricity to Virginia’s robust electrical grid. The project’s major federal permit application, called a Construction and Operations Plan (COP), requests approval to make landfall in Virginia (Kitty Hawk North and South) as the preferred point of interconnection as well as in North Carolina (Kitty Hawk South) to evaluate reasonable alternatives as required by federal law.

The Wind Energy Area is projected to be able to support 3,500 MW of electricity generation, which would be enough to power approximately 1 million homes and businesses. In the next decade, this clean energy project will generate $2 billion in economic activity, jump-start a new industry, create an annual average of 800 jobs, produce an additional $100 million in tax revenue, and accelerate Virginia and North Carolina’s clean energy transition.