Virginia Affirms Offshore Wind Ambitions

Virginia’s Governor Ralph Northam has released the 2018 Virginia Energy Plan which calls for the development of 2,000MW of offshore wind capacity by 2028.

To facilitate the development and execution of a strategy, the Commonwealth should consider creating the Office of Offshore Wind within the Division of Energy at the Virginia Department of Mines, Minerals and Energy (DMME), the plan suggests.

The plan also supports the development of the two-turbine Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind demonstrator project (CVOW) jointly developed by Dominion Energy and Ørsted.

Dominion Energy recently filed for approval of this demonstration project with the State Corporation Commission under provisions of Senate Bill 966 that deems 16MW of offshore wind energy in the public interest.

The CVOW research and development project will lay the groundwork for the potential large-scale commercial development of up to 2GW in Virginia’s 112,800-acre Wind Energy Area leased to Dominion Energy. The utility should submit a timeline for the various steps and approvals necessary to accomplish the full build-out of the offshore wind resource, the report said.

The state’s plan is in line with a recent report by BVG Associates which suggests that by developing 2GW of offshore wind capacity by 2028 Virginia could become a national leader within the industry.