Karl E. Humberson jokes that his leadership role for the nation’s largest offshore wind project — Dominion Energy’s $10 billion, 178-turbine CVOW off the coast of Virginia — is nearing completion in late 2026, it began as a respite from sub-zero temperatures. suffered on a Midwest gas project for the company. “When I got back to my hotel room, I got a call asking if I’d be willing to help build” something new hundreds of miles to the east: giant ocean-based machines at the ready to generate 2.6 GW of energy on 113,000-acres about 27 miles from the coast. “They could have asked me to be a cook and I would have said yes at the time.”
On a more serious note, Dominion’s offshore project manager, who joined the company in 2011 with a degree in marine engineering and experience in the energy sector, says his instinct to take on the challenge now involves the managing a global supply chain, complex logistics and a policy change to install turbines manufactured by Siemens Gamesa each 869 feet tall and generating 14.7 MW, as well as a large supporting infrastructure, all in a physical environment of risk, conditions of the project “I’ve always been attracted to it”, he says.
Elevated last July to vice president of Dominion’s offshore wind construction, Humberson is making headway in an industry plagued by inflation, supply chain gaps and approval headwinds during the first Trump administration that reversed under President Joe Biden, but that could resurface based on random comments from the now-presidential campaign. -elect Donald Trump.
As a regulated utility, with project returns established and user charges hard won by regulators, and with key supply chain contractors and costs mostly locked in before COVID-19, Dominion has avoided much financial trouble in the faced by commercial developers. CVOW “is a credible testament to the ability to build large-scale wind farms,” says Theodore Paradise, a lawyer and policy expert at developer CTC Global.
“Once you get your head around the scale of the components, which is amazing, you realize that … moving things around the world becomes quite complex,” says Humberson. It gained insight into the construction of CVOW’s two pilot turbines in 2020, each 6MW, which provide “real-world reliability statistics for modeling” and have helped regulators with permit approvals.
Humberson also oversaw the off-site construction in Texas of Charybdis, the 472-foot-long turbine installation vessel soon to arrive at CVOW. It is the first to comply with federal regulations that allow only domestic vessels at offshore wind sites. American developers now use complicated and expensive transfer of foreign-made components and barge-assisted installation. Manufacturing delays canceled earlier use of the ship by other developers and pushed the price up to $715 million, but Humberson says these are offset by the higher costs and risks of the old method
Humberson, right in the cab of the giant Orion crane, looks on at CVOW’s sorting site in Portsmouth, Va., with DEME’s first crane operator, Gary Waumans, before equipment supplied by the project’s contractor is loaded in a boat to install the foundations. at sea for the project’s 176 wind turbines, of 14.7 MW each.
Photo courtesy of Dominion Energy
Work is on track, with 82 turbine foundations installed by the end of October, to stop the project for whale migration. Work will restart in the spring, boosted by a $2.6 billion private investor deal last year for a 50 percent stake in the project.
Humberson says the steady progress of the project has increased confidence in the supply chain. South Korean manufacturer LS Greenlink’s unit announced in 2024 a $681 million high-voltage submarine cable plant in Chesapeake, Va., a first in the United States, with Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R) saying that “ will show the [state] as a manufacturing leader in the offshore wind industry.”
Mark D. Mitchell, Dominion’s senior vice president of energy project construction, “in addition to having excellent construction and sales skills and being a problem solver, Karl develops his employees by giving them maximum exposure to all facets of project management”. He adds that CVOW is “a fascinating megaproject and being the first US utility to build, own and operate one of the world’s largest offshore wind projects has attracted … talented employees who want to be on the ground floor of some something special.”
Observers point to the importance of such a large project succeeding. “Very few power plants are that big, and no other form of generation could be built in two years. Virginia needs electricity, and there’s only one project ready,” says Willett Kemp, a professor of engineering and marine science at the University of Delaware. and a nationally known expert on offshore wind energy and policy issues.
“This project would advance the learning rate and supply chain of the overall offshore wind industry. Even delays, especially for a project already permitted and ready to build, would be expensive and harmful to Virginia. Both Hopefully the president-elect and his advisers will make the appropriate trade-offs.”
Humberson points to more potential work in developing future Dominion offshore wind lease sites or in other of its growing energy areas. “I feel like the industry didn’t think we’d be where we are today,” he says.
