A quiet hurricane season and the arrival on the job site of Charybdis, the first U.S.-built and federally approved offshore wind turbine installation vessel, allowed crews to build the $10.7 billion, 2.6 GW Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind project to complete work to install its 176 turbine foundations by the end of September, when the battery driving season in the North Atlantic was to end.
Installation of the project’s 14MW Siemens Gamesa turbines and the second of three offshore substations is continuing, a spokesman for owner Dominion Energy told ENR. “We have completed the installation of the deepwater export cables, installed almost 45% of the nearshore export cables and are also installing inter-array cables that carry power from the turbines to the offshore substations.”
He said the first power will be generated in the first quarter of next year and the project will be completed by the end of 2026.
The $715 million, 472-foot-long Charybdis, built at the Seatrium AMFELS shipyard in Brownsville, Texas, went over its original budget by about $65 million. But it has a 426-foot crane that can lift up to 2,200 tons and install four turbines with each trip, the spokesman says.
Timely execution has so far been unaffected by the Trump administration’s crackdown on the industry, which has included orders elsewhere on the East Coast to halt work on the project and stop permitting. But the US The Department of Transportation in September canceled a nearly $40 million grant for the Norfolk Offshore Wind Logistics Plant that was set to support the project.
“Our project has enjoyed bipartisan support from the beginning,” the spokesman said, noting the support of the state’s top Republicans, including Gov. Glenn Youngkin and U.S. Rep. Jen Kiggans, who called CVOW “important to Virginia,” as one of the largest data centers and military operations centers in the United States. according to E&E Political NewsHouse Speaker Mike Johnson (R) relayed Kiggans’ concerns directly to President Donald Trump. “I understand the priority of Virginians and we want to do well, so we’ll see,” Johnson said.
“The administration’s tactics against offshore wind have focused primarily on trying to force states to buy more natural gas,” said industry analyst Philip Totaro, founder and CEO of IntelStor LLC. “Dominion Energy already supplies natural gas to some customers in South Carolina and is looking for a new gas-fired power plant in Chesterfield County, Va., to support offshore wind.”
But all are watching the outcome of the Nov. 4 election, with new contenders vying to succeed term-limited Youngkin as governor and former House Democrat Abigail Spanberger showing a strong lead.
His victory could lead to new clean energy legislative moves in Virginia, such as the state’s Clean Economy Act of 2020, which could focus Trump’s grudge on CVOW. “If Spanberger is elected to office and tries to implement more actions similar to the [law]Virginia could become a target for the federal government, and CVOW could bear the brunt [its] fury,” Totaro said.
Meanwhile, the administration’s attacks on offshore wind and clean energy will complicate bipartisan permitting reform efforts, said Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (DR.I.), ranking member of the US Senate Environment and Public Works Committee on Oct. 22.
“Why would we want to do bipartisan permitting reform during an administration that will not faithfully enforce this law, that cannot be trusted, with relentless and often illegal assaults on clean energy projects,” he said, alleging that Interior Department Secretary Doug Burgum “stated he had no interest” in including the proposed offshore wind reform in a permit.
Whitehouse said: “Unless these illegal acts end and unless offshore wind is included, there will be no permit agreement. End of story.”
