Virginia Offshore Wind Technology Advancement Project

Location and Scope

• The CVOW project is located approximately 27 miles (43 km) off the coast of Virginia Beach, Virginia.

Pilot Project (VOWTAP and Initial Phase)

• The Virginia Offshore Wind Technology Advancement Project (VOWTAP) was an initial program aimed at exploring offshore wind farms in the Atlantic Ocean off Virginia's coast. It received funding from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) in 2012 and 2014 but was eventually withdrawn due to high construction bids and unmet funding requirements.
• The pilot project that followed was constructed by Ørsted US Offshore Wind for Dominion Energy. It consists of two 6-megawatt (MW) offshore wind turbines, making it a 12-MW demonstration project. This pilot was completed in 2020 and is the second utility-scale offshore wind farm operating in the U.S., after the Block Island Wind Farm. It is the first utility-scale wind farm serving Virginia and the first built in U.S. federal waters.

Full-Scale Project

• The full-scale CVOW project is a 2.6-gigawatt (GW) offshore wind energy project. It will consist of 176 wind turbines, located 27 miles off the coast of Virginia Beach.
• Scheduled to begin offshore construction in 2024, with onshore transmission infrastructure construction starting in late 2023, the project is expected to be fully operational by 2026.

Capacity and Impact

• The full-scale project will generate enough clean, renewable energy to power up to 660,000 homes. It will avoid millions of tons of carbon dioxide emissions annually, equivalent to removing more than 1 million cars off the road each year.
• The project will deliver up to 9.5 million megawatt-hours per year of clean energy, avoiding as much as 5 million tons of carbon dioxide emissions annually.

Economic and Job Benefits

• The project is expected to create hundreds of direct and indirect jobs and generate tens of millions of dollars in pay and benefits annually. An economic-impact analysis estimates the seven-year impact to be roughly $57 million in pay and benefits and $143 million in economic output, generating $5 million in state and local tax revenue.
• The project will attract manufacturing and service companies, supporting the emerging U.S. offshore wind industry and contributing to local and state economic development.

Environmental Considerations

• Extensive precautions are being taken to safeguard sensitive marine species, such as the North Atlantic right whale. Environmental groups, including the Southern Environmental Law Center (SELC), have played a crucial role in securing environmental and consumer protections for the project.

Infrastructure and Logistics

• The project includes three offshore substations, undersea cables, and new onshore transmission infrastructure. Bluewater Wind handled port logistics for the pilot project, while Seaway 7 supplied, installed, buried, and tested the offshore power cables.
• The power from the turbines is cabled to a substation near Camp Pendleton.

Regulatory and Development Framework

• The project is developed by Dominion Energy, with Ørsted US Offshore Wind as a key collaborator. The regulatory agencies involved include the Virginia Department of Mines, Minerals and Energy (DMME) and the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM).

The CVOW project marks a significant milestone in the development of offshore wind energy in the United States, contributing to a cleaner, more sustainable energy future while providing substantial economic benefits.