Wind Energy – Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind
Dominion Energy announced today the 50th monopile foundation for the 2.6-gigawatt Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind (CVOW) was installed 33 miles off the coast of Virginia Beach.
With this milestone, Dominion is keeping the project on schedule to hit the company’s target of 70-100 monopiles set into the sea floor during the first of two installation seasons that run through the end of October.
CVOW, the largest offshore wind project under construction in the United States, will consist of 176 turbines that will generate enough clean, renewable energy to power up to 660,000 homes and is expected to generate fuel savings of $3 billion for customers during the first 10 years of operation. Construction remains on schedule to be completed in late 2026.
“Our on-time, on-budget Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind project proves that regulated offshore wind works in the United States,” said Robert M. Blue, Dominion Energy’s chair, president and chief executive officer. “Offshore wind is critical to our all-of-the-above approach to provide our customers with affordable, reliable and increasingly clean energy.”
The monopile foundations, which are being staged at Portsmouth Marine Terminal, are single vertical, steel cylinders manufactured by global leader EEW SPC and are being installed into the sea floor to support the wind turbine generators. Consistent with the project construction schedule, Dominion Energy will continue to install monopiles through the fall of 2024 and resume installations in May 2025.