First Towers and Turbines Installing for Virginia Offshore Wind Farm
Just days after a U.S. District Court judge agreed to issue a temporary injunction to let work resume on Virginia’s offshore wind farm, work is underway with the first towers and wind turbines being installed. Dominion Energy’s Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind is the largest project in the United States and is using the only U.S.-built wind turbine installation vessel.
Virginia’s Senator Tim Kaine reported the process on January 21 after having toured the Portsmouth Marine Terminal and received an update on the progress made on the wind farm project. He told local news outlet WAVY, “Number one of 176” had been installed.
The development is being hailed as a milestone on the project, which was expected to generate its first power early this year. It will continue commissioning in 2026 and will reach a rated capacity of 2.6 GW when finished. It is located at least 30 miles east of Virginia Beach.
The report said the first installation was near the two pilot wind turbines Dominion Energy installed in 2020. The pilot turbines are smaller, standing 630 feet, while the Siemens Gamesa 14 MW turbines for the wind farm will stand about 830 feet.
WAVY’s coverage showed images of the massive wind turbine installation vessel Charybdis in operation. Dominion Energy ordered the vessel from Seatrium AmFELS in Texas, which was delivered last year. It had been undergoing additional commissioning and U.S. Coast Guard certifications in Virginia.
Dominion Energy issued a statement on January 16 after its request for a preliminary injunction was granted by the court. Work on the project was stopped about a month after the Trump administration issued a stop-work order for all five of the offshore wind farms under construction on the U.S. East Coast. Three of the projects have each received preliminary injunctions, while the other two have filed with the courts. The merits of the case, which challenges the assertion that new information shows a national security risk from radar clutter caused by the wind turbines is yet to be decided.
The company had told the court the project, which is expected to cost $11.2 billion, was 70 percent completed and that its team would focus on safely restarting work for CVOW. The company reports it has spent approximately $9 billion to date on the project and told the court each day of the stop-work order was costing it $5 million. Estimates are month’s long delay added $130 million to the cost of the project.
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Dominion Energy argues that the project is critical to meeting the growing power demands of the region. It asserts that not completing the project would be a challenge to national security as its service region includes the navy’s largest shipbuilder and critical military installations, as well as the state having the largest concentration of data centers supporting the growth of AI.
The company did not comment on the work underway, but Senator Kaine called it an “incredible project will bolster offshore wind in VA, lower costs, and grow the local economy.”