Seventy-eight monopile foundations and four offshore substation foundations have been installed at Dominion Energy’s 2.6 GW Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind (CVOW) project during its first installation season.
CVOW is slated to consist of 176 turbines in total.
The company says this achieves its initial objectives of at least 70 monopiles set into the sea floor 27 miles off the coast of Virginia Beach. It adds that project construction remains on-budget and on schedule to be complete in 2026.
For the next few months, the company is slated to focus on installation of the first offshore substation, continued export cable lays and onshore transmission construction and placement of transition pieces on top of monopiles in preparation for turbine installation starting next year.
“Our Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind project shows that regulated offshore wind works in the United States,” says Robert M. Blue, Dominion Energy’s chair, president and chief executive officer.
“As we face unprecedented customer demand, offshore wind is critical to our diverse, all-of-the-above generation mix to keep the lights on for our customers with affordable, reliable and increasingly clean energy.”
The monopile foundations, which are being staged at Portsmouth Marine Terminal, are single vertical, steel cylinders manufactured by EEW SPC and are being installed into the sea floor to support the wind turbine generators supplied by Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy. Installations will resume next May.
