On Jan. 16, a federal district court judge in Norfolk, Va., granted the nation’s largest offshore wind project now under construction, the 2.6 GW Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind, a stay from an ongoing federal shutdown, granting the developer a preliminary injunction against the Dec. 22 order. The action will allow construction to continue while the court considers the merits of its developer’s lawsuit.
The decision came immediately after a hearing on the request before Judge Jamar Walker, who told lawyers for the U.S. Department of the Interior and project owner Dominion Energy that the agency’s stop-work order, based on “national security” risks asserted in a U.S. Defense Department report, was too broad to address the project specifically and pertained to wind farm operation, not construction, he said. Reuters.
The ruling follows two others this week in federal district court in Washington, DC, that also reversed construction halts: one on Jan. 12 against the 704 MW Revolution Wind project being developed by Orsted between Connecticut and Rhode Island, and the other on Jan. 15 against the 810 MW Empire Wind, an Equinor project off the coast of New York. The attorneys general of the three states filed separate lawsuits challenging the shutdowns as harmful to the state’s delivery of power. Two other stalled projects have yet to be resolved, the 924 MW Sunrise Wind, also to provide power to New York, and the 800 MW Vineyard Wind, which now sends partial power to Massachusetts.
Dominion Energy and other developers said the projects’ radar interference risks were previously known and mitigated at earlier stages of development, with project approvals given by the US Department of Defense.
Dominion said it has invested about $8.9 billion so far to build the 176-turbine project, which is 60 percent complete, with a total cost estimated at $11.2 billion. The company said in its lawsuit that the shutdown was costing about $5 million a day. Construction of CVOW’s turbine monopile foundations and its 12 offshore power substation pillar foundations has been completed, project spokesman Jeremy Slayton confirmed to ENR, with turbine installation now underway.
“Our team will now focus on safely restarting work to ensure CVOW begins delivering critical power within weeks,” Dominion said. “While our legal challenge continues, we will continue to seek a lasting resolution to this matter through cooperation with the federal government.”
In what is considered an unusual action, grid operator PJM Interconnection, which regulates power transmission in a 13-state region that includes East Coast states where offshore wind projects are located, filed a legal brief in support of CVOW’s lawsuit.
With its region including Virginia, now a major US hub for existing and future data centers, the grid operator said “the rapidly growing demand for … for new power generation has become increasingly urgent,” adding that CVOW “is an integral component of the necessary new generation that PJM has been relying on to achieve timely commercial operation.” The operator said that “given the size of the project and the long delivery times associated with the development of alternatives, a further delay of the project will cause irreparable harm to 67 million residents of this region who depend on a continued reliable supply of electricity.”
Sean McGarvey, president of the National Association of Construction Unions, whose members make up most of the projects’ core workforce and which also filed legal briefs in support of the three lawsuits, said the group “applauds this week’s federal court rulings that restart offshore wind projects in the U.S. … so many.” [union] Members can finally return to the workplace and continue building critical home energy infrastructure.”
In response to the Virginia project ruling, Trump administration spokeswoman Taylor Rogers repeated an earlier statement that she expected a “definitive victory” related to its legal claims, but has not indicated whether the government will appeal the latest decision and others.
