U.S. Interior Approves Dominion Energy’s 2.6-Gigawatt Wind Project Off Virginia, Largest in the U.S.

The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management on Oct. 31 announced its approval of the fifth commercial-scale, offshore wind energy project in the U.S., the Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind project, located about 23.5 nautical miles offshore Virginia Beach. The project, expected to add 2,600 megawatts (MW) of clean energy to the grid, would be capable of powering more than 900,000 homes. The four other projects that have received final federal approval are the 800-MW Vineyard Wind I, 130-MW South Fork Wind, 1,100-MW Ocean Wind I, and 704-MW Revolution Wind projects. Together, the five projects would generate more than 5 gigawatts of clean energy capable of supplying over 1.75 million homes.

The bureau recently announced the designation of four new Wind Energy Areas in the Gulf of Mexico, which have the potential to support offshore wind projects that could collectively power over three million homes with renewable energy. The first Gulf of Mexico offshore wind lease sale held in August attracted a high bid of $5.6 million from RWE, a company based in Germany, for a 102,480-acre area offshore Lake Charles, which has the potential to support up to 1.24 gigawatts of offshore wind energy capacity.

The administration has conducted four offshore wind lease auctions totaling nearly $5.5 billion in high bids. The agency is exploring additional opportunities for e wind energy development in the Gulf of Maine and offshore Oregon and the U.S. Central Atlantic coast. These efforts will help advance the administration’s goal of deploying 30 gigawatts of offshore wind energy capacity by 2030.