Dominion says offshore wind farm moving forward, despite executive order

President Donald Trump started his second term Monday with a flurry of executive orders, including one that temporarily ceases all federal wind leases under consideration and calls for an “immediate review” of the policies before resuming.

So, what does that mean for Virginia and Dominion Power, which is midway through constructing its $9.8 billion Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind farm off the coast of Virginia Beach and has purchased two other wind farm leases in the Atlantic Ocean?

The Richmond-based Fortune 500 utility said in a statement Tuesday that it is “confident CVOW will be completed on time, and that Virginia’s clean energy transition will continue with bipartisan support for many years to come.”

Dominion noted that the state’s renewable energy transition — part of 2020’s Virginia Clean Economy Act, which requires Dominion to deliver 100% of electricity by renewable power sources by 2045 — has been underway “for several years under multiple state and federal administrations and with bipartisan support from policymakers at every level.”

Dominion spokesperson Jeremy Slayton added that any plans for the utility’s other two ocean leases — the 40,000-acre CVOW-South plot off eastern North Carolina and the 176,505-acre lease adjacent to CVOW purchased last year — are well in the future. “At this time, we do not have an estimated timeline or cost for development of either CVOW South or the new leasehold,” he said. “Based on our most recent long-term planning document, if we pursued these projects, they are planned for the 2030s.”

Dominion completed CVOW’s federal approval process during the Biden administration, which was much friendlier to renewable energy and particularly wind energy than Trump’s White House is expected to be. The 2.6-gigawatt project, which is expected to provide enough energy to power 660,000 homes, is scheduled to be completed in 2026. As of November 2024, half of the monopile foundations for the 174 turbines had been installed.

The utility also sold some assets, including the $2.6 billion sale of a 50% noncontrolling stake of CVOW to investor Stonepeak, in 2024, reducing Dominion’s debt by approximately $21 billion and lowering risks during the wind farm’s construction.