Dominion to open nation’s biggest offshore wind farm

Industry Discussions Renewable Energy
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CLIMATEWIRE | The largest offshore wind project under construction in the U.S. has nine turbines in the water and is on track to begin operating next year.

The update by Dominion Energy on its sprawling project called Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind came as the utility reported strong growth in power demand from data centers. Company executives also expressed enthusiasm in Virginia’s new energy storage targets and said the utility had submitted a bid to extend a long-term power contract for its nuclear power plant in Connecticut.

But the offshore wind project headlined Dominion’s financial update with analysts Friday. The Trump administration temporarily halted construction of the 2,600-megawatt project late last year. Construction resumed in January after Dominion successfully sued the government. The project’s first turbine began spinning in March.

Company executives said the utility is installing two turbines a day, putting it on track to complete construction on all 176 turbines by June 2027. Dominion lowered the project’s estimated price tag from $11.5 billion to $11.4 billion as a result of the Supreme Court striking down President Donald Trump’s tariffs. The company estimates the project will save Virginia ratepayers $5 billion in fuel costs during its first decade of operations.

“CVOW remains one of the most affordable sources of energy for our customers,” Dominion CEO Robert Blue told financial analysts. “Taking a step back, an ‘all-of-the-above’ approach to energy supply, including CVOW, is critical to ensuring continued reliability amidst real time growing demand in our service area.”

Jaak

The Virginia utility also expressed optimism about battery storage and nuclear power.

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Does federal policy stopping and even dismantling offshore wind stem from hatred of the aesthetics or a dangerously short term slant for making oil and gas people (like me! :money_mouth_face:) wealthier? or over-utilization of ouija boards. The level of resistance is… mystifying :shushing_face:

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CLIMATEWIRE | Lee Zeldin introduced himself to EPA staff last year as someone who had experienced first-hand the risks some U.S. communities face from climate change.

In his first speech to agency staff in February 2025, the newly confirmed administrator said his home town on Long Island “got crushed” during Hurricane Sandy in 2012.

Asked about EPA’s retreat from adaptation under Zeldin, spokeswoman Brigit Hirsch said the agency was “committed to policies grounded in gold standard science, sound economics, and genuine environmental progress, not in the fear-mongering and speculative modeling peddled by those invested in costly, unreliable ‘green’ scams.”

EPA in recent months has also removed countless mapping tools and databases from its website that were used by states and cities, philanthropies and businesses to assess and prepare for climate risks. Some, like the EJScreen environmental justice mapping tool — which reflects exposure to climate risk and other environmental burdens across the country — are now being hosted on nongovernmental servers.

A group of independent researchers called Climate Literacy has collected many of those deleted federal tools on its website.

EPA under Zeldin also canceled hundreds of finalized grant awards under programs authorized by former President Joe Biden’s 2022 climate law, which aimed to help communities shore up their defenses against climate risks or remediate other pollution.

Advocates for climate-vulnerable communities said they were surprised that EPA under Zeldin moved so quickly to take EPA out of the climate adaptation business. Zeldin had, after all, represented one of the nation’s most climate-exposed congressional districts for eight years through 2023.

New York’s 1st District sits on a barrier-island coastline that is already experiencing erosion and sea-level rise that is projected to get worse. The New York State Climate Impact Assessment estimates that Long Island will see between 2 and 3 feet of sea-level rise by the close of the century, and might see more. Already it is exposed to storm surge and tidal flooding.

The federal government is spending heavily to help Zeldin’s former district prepare for that future. The Army Corps of Engineers picked up the full $2.4 billion tab to raise the elevation of thousands of homes and fortify sand barriers that are being washed away.

As a congressman, Zeldin advocated for federal dollars to make Long Island more climate resilient. In the same introductory speech at EPA, he referenced the $44 million in post-Sandy resilience funding he helped secure to shore up a historic lighthouse.

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It is selling the last of the barrels of oil before oil becomes a non-issue. It is now or never to get it out of the ground.

The UAE is leaving OPEC to break its quotas.

Meanwhile to have extra fun with the military industrial complex lets make a $1.7 tr ask of congress for the Pentagon budget. To protect?

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Company executives expressed optimism that Virginia’s new targets for battery storage represent a growth opportunity for Dominion. Virginia recently passed a law requiring Dominion to seek 20,000 MW of short- and long-duration storage by 2045, up from a previous target of 3,000 MW by 2035.

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It’s a combo of the aesthetics, the bird murders, and the low frequency vibrations that make younger whales trans without notifying their parents. All very serious stuff.

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One reason would be the high cost of offshore wind.
As you know, a number of companies backed out of projects (or didn’t bid in the first place) because they couldn’t get high enough rates.

When grid costs such as connection costs and balancing costs are included the system costs increase as renewable penetration increases. The IEA uses a term VALCOE (value-adjusted cost of energy) and writes:

Power generation technologies primarily generate electricity (or energy) but also provide other services that are critical to the adequacy, reliability and quality of electricity supply. Among technologies that have similar operational characteristics and play similar roles in power systems – and therefore have similar value to the overall system – the LCOE can provide a robust metric of competitiveness. But not all power technologies contribute equally to these essential services.

These system differences have been know for years but are generally ignored at low penetration levels. Way back in 2012 the OECD put some number to these costs for six countries (France, Finland, Kores, US, UK and Germany). The cost for battery backup has obviously decreased since then. However, even with the backup costs reduced by 90%, the US costs for renewables are more than an order of magnitude higher at the 30% penetration level.

       Total grid-level system costs
               USD/MWhr
Nuclear           1.67
Coal              1.03
Nat gas           0.51
Onshore wind     14.31
Offshore wind    22.10
Solar            18.87

DB2

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Last month the German Economy and Energy Minister, Katherina Reiche, wrote:

Let’s stop deluding ourselves about energy policy

Yes, wind and sun don’t send a bill. But the overall system certainly does: EEG costs, capacity reserves, grid reserves, re-dispatch costs, grid subsidies, subsidies for lowering energy prices—all of this adds up to system costs of over 36 billion euros per year…

We’re spending nearly three billion euros just to curtail wind turbines and solar plants because the grids can’t handle the electricity. There’s no other industry that receives financing guaranteed for over 20 years and even collects compensation when its product isn’t needed. This can’t go on.

DB2

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Wrong again. Wrong again. Wrong again.

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Wrong again. Wrong again.