Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind

Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind (CVOW) is an offshore wind energy project located about 24 nautical miles (27 miles, 43 kilometers) off the coast of Virginia Beach in the Hampton Roads metropolitan area of Virginia, U.S. CVOW is being developed by Dominion Energy and is the largest offshore wind project under development in the U.S., covering a lease area of 112,800 acres and expected to have a capacity of 2.6 gigawatts (GW). It is expected to generate electricity equivalent to the electricity consumed by 660,000 homes. The wind farm will consist of 176 Siemens Gamesa SG 14-222 DD fixed-bottom wind turbines, each of which has a capacity of 14.6 megawatts (MW) and a 222 meter rotor diameter. Dominion expects that the project will cost $10.7 billion.

CVOW is one of the first commercial offshore wind farms built in U.S. federal waters and aims to contribute substantially to Virginia's renewable energy targets which call for a total offshore wind capacity of 5.2 GW by the end of 2035 and 100 percent clean energy by 2050. The project is the only offshore wind farm in the U.S being developed by a state public utility company (Dominion) as opposed to a private developer. This offers it more flexibility in changing electricity prices in response to project cost changes, which is not an option of private developers with fixed-price agreements. CVOW is expected to create 900 construction jobs and 1,100 jobs once in operation, as well as $210 million in economic output once operational.Magnum Economics. (2020). Potential impact of the development of the offshore wind energy industry on Hampton Roads and Virginia. In Coastalvawind. https://coastalvawind.com/img/offshore-wind-economic-impact-report.pdf

Before construction of the primary commercial scale project, Dominion built a pilot project on the edge of the lease area that was completed in 2020 in collaboration with Danish energy company Ørsted. The project features two Siemens Gamesa SWT-6.0-154 6 MW wind turbines. The purpose of this pilot project was to research new technologies in offshore wind and develop innovative ways of reducing costs. The lessons learnt from this project were made publicly available by the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) to support the advancement of the offshore wind energy sector in the U.S, and informed the development of CVOW, which is now under construction and expected to be completed in 2026.

In order to get the electricity generated to the onshore grid, the wind farm will feature three offshore substations that collect and bundle together the electricity from the turbines. This will in turn be delivered to an onshore landing station at the State Military Reservation (SMR) in Virginia Beach by undersea cables. These cables continue underground to a switching station at the Naval Air Station Oceana, after which the energy can be delivered to Dominion's existing Fentress Substation in Chesapeake, Virginia, to be connected to the electrical grid. In order to support construction, Dominion is developing its own turbine installation vessel which will be the first Jones Act-compliant offshore wind vessel, and will be used to support other projects after CVOW. This is significant both for the ease of transportation during CVOW's construction, as well as for the growth of a domestic supply chain for offshore wind in the U.S. as a whole (see "Ports and Vessels" section under "Infrastructure" for more information).

Development Timeline

This timeline traces the development from the project from 2012 to 2027 when the operation of CVOW is expected begin. It is organized in four distinct phases that the project must go through in order to be complete. The first phase is early development and planning, during which time the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) gauges interest in a new lease area, evaluates the environmental impacts that may be imposed on it by construction, and conducts an auction to select a developer for a new offshore wind project. During the second phase, environmental review and permitting, the developer must submit a plan for how they will build, operate, and decommission the project. In response to this, BOEM must conduct an environmental analysis to assess the impacts of the plan, and consider comments submitted from the public regarding the public. In the third phase, record of decision and approvals, BOEM along with other implicated agencies must consider the environmental analysis and make a final decision on whether or not to approve the project. If approved, the project moves to the final phase during which is the action construction and installation of the wind farm.

Lease Area

Location

Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind is located in federally controlled waters on Commercial Lease Outer Continental Shelf (OSC)-A-0483 which is approximately 24 nautical miles off the Virginia Beach coastline. The lease area comprises 112,800 acres and the entirety of this area will be occupied by the wind farm.Dominion Energy. (2021). Construction and Operations Plan Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind Commercial Project. In ''Boem.gov''. https://www.boem.gov/sites/default/files/documents/renewable-energy/state-activities/CVOW-Commercial-COP-Sections-1-3.pdf The pilot project, which was built just on the western edge of the main commercial lease area, occupies its own lease area named Research Lease OCS-A-0497. This lease area is 2,135 acres and is directly attached to OCS-A-0483.

History of Lease Area

In 2009, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) initiated the renewable energy program (authorized under the Energy Policy Act of 2005), which provides a structure for regional planning and analysis, lease issuance, site assessment, and construction and operations. BOEM is required by the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act