The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management has offered a right of way (ROW) grant to Deepwater Wind Block Island Transmission System LLC (Deepwater Find) for its offshore system.

Interior Secretary Sally Jewell said the approval was a “major milestone” for offshore renewable energy in the US, paving the way for Block Island – the only Rhode Island community not connected to the grid – to have access to renewable energy.

Deepwater Wind would entail the installation of a bi-directional submerged transmission cable between Block Island and the Rhode Island mainland.

The transmission system would connect Deepwater Wind’s proposed 30 megawatt Block Island wind farm in Rhode Island state waters about 2.5 nautical miles southeast of Block Island, to the Rhode Island mainland.

It will transmit power from the onshore transmission grid on the mainland to Block Island. The ROW corridor, which is about eight nautical miles long and 200 feet wide, comprises the portion of the transmission line that crosses federal waters.

The bureau has awarded seven commercial wind energy leases off the Atlantic coast: two non-competitively issued leases (one for the proposed Cape Wind project in Nantucket Sound offshore Massachusetts and one offshore Delaware); and five competitively issued leases (two offshore Rhode Island-Massachusetts, two offshore Maryland, and one offshore Virginia).

The competitive lease sales generated about $US14 million ($A16.06 million) in winning bids for more than 357,500 acres in federal waters. The bureau is expected to hold additional competitive auctions for wind energy areas offshore Massachusetts and New Jersey in the coming year.

Efforts to spur development of offshore wind energy are part of a series of Obama Administration actions to increase renewable energy both offshore and onshore by improving coordination with state, local and federal partners.

The Department of the Interior has approved 52 wind, solar and geothermal utility-scale projects on public or tribal lands since 2009, including associated transmission corridors and infrastructure to connect to established power grids.

When built, these projects could provide about 14,000MW – enough energy to power nearly 4.8 million homes and support more than 20,000 construction and operations jobs.

Once both the agency and Deepwater Wind have agreed on the terms and conditions of the grant, BOEM will send the grant to Deepwater Wind for execution, and the company will be required to pay the first year’s rent and provide financial assurance.

Once executed, the bureau will finalise its review of Deepwater Wind’s general activities plan, which describes proposed installation activities and conceptual decommissioning plans for the transmission system. The general activities plan would be the first approved for an offshore wind energy project for a transmission system in federal waters.

Most of the activities and permanent structures related to the Block Island Wind Farm will be sited in state waters and lands, making the US Army Corps of Engineers the lead federal agency for analysing the potential environmental effects of the project under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA).

As a portion of the proposed project would be located on the federally managed Outer Continental Shelf, the project must secure a ROW grant from the bureau before proceeding. The bureau has participated as a cooperating agency in the NEPA analysis and associated consultations led by the Corps.