At an event with Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin and other state officials at its North Anna nuclear power plant in Louisa County, Dominion Energy announced plans Wednesday to potentially develop a small modular reactor (SMR) at North Anna.
Dominion officials said they were issuing a request for proposals for the SMR from nuclear technology companies, stressing that it was not a commitment to build an SMR at North Anna, but the first step in evaluating the feasibility of doing so.
The terms of the RFP are being kept private, according to Dominion, but a group of SMR manufacturers have been notified of the request.
“For over 50 years, nuclear power has been the most reliable workhorse of Virginia’s electric fleet, generating 40% of our power and with zero carbon emissions,” said Dominion Energy Chair, President and CEO Robert M. Blue. “As Virginia’s need for reliable and clean power grows, SMRs could play a pivotal role in an ‘all-of-the-above’ approach to our energy future. Along with offshore wind, solar and battery storage, SMRs have the potential to be an important part of Virginia’s growing clean energy mix.”
In a statement, Youngkin said, “The commonwealth’s potential to unleash and foster a rich energy economy is limitless. To meet the power demands of the future, it is imperative we continue to explore emerging technologies that will provide Virginians access to the reliable, affordable and clean energy they deserve. In alignment with our all-American, all-of-the-above energy plan, small nuclear reactors will play a critical role in harnessing this potential and positioning Virginia to be a leading nuclear innovation hub.”
Gov. Glenn Youngkin signed a bill July 10, 2024, at the North Anna nuclear power plant in Louisa County, joined by Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears, Virginia lawmakers and representatives of Dominion Energy. Photo by Kate Andrews | Virginia Business
Under a tent by the 50-year-old North Anna nuclear power station, Youngkin signed SB 454, a state Senate bill with bipartisan support that permits Dominion to petition the State Corporation Commission at any time by the end of 2029 for the approval of a rate adjustment clause to recover development costs for an SMR.
Legislators in Southwest Virginia and Youngkin have been bullish on the prospect of building a SMR in Virginia as part of the Virginia Clean Economy Act passed in 2020, which requires the state’s two major electric utilities — Dominion and Appalachian Power — to shift to carbon-free, renewable energy sources such as wind and solar power for electricity generation in the next 26 years. Youngkin has pushed for VCEA to allow natural gas and nuclear energy to be part of the state’s energy production; in 2022, he announced a goal to build an SMR in Southwest Virginia in the next decade.
Located between Richmond and Charlottesville, North Anna is far from Southwest Virginia, but Del. Terry Kilgore, R-Gate City, was still enthusiastic about Wednesday’s announcement, which he attended. “We’re going to get there with Southwest. We realized we may be second or third down the line.”
Kilgore said he hopes the state’s first SMR — a smaller, less expensive version of a large nuclear power plant, producing up to 300 megawatts per unit, about one-third of the capacity of conventional nuclear reactors — will take less than 10 years to develop and build. However, as of 2023, only China and Russia had successfully built operational SMRs.
Asked if he had any views on non-U.S.-based companies bidding for Dominion’s RFP, Youngkin said Wednesday he expects the utility “will have a wide-open technology request for proposals, and then they will work to make sure that they have the very best. I have to say … that U.S. companies are at the forefront right now of providing the technology and small modular reactors, and that’s who I’d expect to win.” He added that Virginia nuclear companies sometimes are part of joint projects in developing SMRs.
“The process of designing and building an SMR is a multipurpose team,” he added. “I believe that there will be Virginia companies deeply involved. I also expect companies that will be building these reactors in the future will very much want to locate here in Virginia.”
Blue noted in the presentation that he is “unabashedly” a cheerleader for nuclear energy, which produces about 90% of the zero-carbon energy Dominion produces annually, as well as 40% of all energy produced by the utility, at its North Anna and Surry nuclear plants.
He said that Dominion hopes to develop the state’s first SMR at North Anna in the 2030s, and added that the law signed Wednesday caps SMR development cost recovery to no more than $1.40 per month for a typical residential customer.
Where some people see pollutants, Steve Critchfield sees the potential for profit and to improve the environment.
As founder and president of Pulaski-based MOVA Technologies, Critchfield developed and patented a filter about the size of a refrigerator that captures selected air pollutants and breaks them into byproducts that can be sold and reused. It’s based on technology developed by the late Arthur Squires, a Virginia Tech professor who worked on the Manhattan Project.
MOVA started out aiming to get into the competitive market for developing carbon capture technology, but as its board and backers became impatient for returns, Critchfield says, the company pivoted to producing an ammonia-capture filter for the poultry industry, its first product launch.
Instead of exhausting highly soluble airborne ammonia from chicken waste into the air, where it can wind up polluting waterways through runoff, poultry farms can capture the ammonia with MOVA’s filters and turn it into fertilizer.
Following a successful pilot test with a poultry producer in Delaware this spring, MOVA is planning an early 2025 rollout for the ammonia-capture filters.
That’s not to say that MOVA is getting away from carbon capture, though. After completing a $2 million seed round in September and receiving about $500,000 in federal and state grants to develop and test its technology, MOVA announced in October it will collaborate on a carbon dioxide capture program with Pulaski-based Vegg Inc., a controlled environment agriculture startup for which Critchfield is the largest shareholder.
MOVA’s industrial-sized point-source filters will capture carbon dioxide from the air to feed plants that Vegg will grow at an indoor, vertical farm being established in Pulaski’s former Jefferson Elementary School building, which Vegg bought last year for $100,000.
“It’s like we’re just harvesting [carbon dioxide] and hooking the spigot up to the building,” says Vegg co-founder Luke Allison, also director of advancement and stockholder relations for MOVA.
MOVA’s innovation comes as Virginia moves toward its state mandate of net-zero carbon emissions from power generation by 2050.
Unlike carbon storage systems designed to indefinitely capture carbon emissions, MOVA’s filters are intended to recycle carbon dioxide for industrial uses, Critchfield says.
If the pilot with Vegg is successful, Critchfield sees possibilities for expanding beyond indoor farming into serving industries like bottling and brewing: “No more carbon dioxide will need to be created. That’s huge for global warming.”
Freelance writer Paul Bergeron contributed to this story.
Chris Rawlings was a mechanic who wanted to be a pilot.
He left the Marine Corps in 2008 after deploying twice to Iraq, where he supervised an aircraft maintenance team, going on to perform similar duties as a civilian contractor in a hangar at Fort Eustis. But his plan was to get back into the service.
“My dream was always to fly fighter jets for the Marine Corps,” he says, but something unexpected happened, and Rawlings instead found his next career.
His boss at the hangar asked him to study ways to improve efficiency, and as Rawlings poked around, he noticed the “massive amount” of money the place was wasting from energy losses with temperature-controlled air blowing out hangar doors or leaking through hoses. Going green could save the operation a lot of money, he realized, and the idea stuck with him.
In 2014, Rawlings launched Richmond-based Bowerbird Energy LLC, which focuses on helping businesses cut their power costs. Nine years later, Bowerbird is “a multimillion-dollar business,” with more than 350 clients nationwide, Rawlings says. The company designs LED lighting arrays and HVAC systems, and it creates feasibility studies and energy plans for businesses interested in reducing their carbon footprints or switching to renewable energy.
“There’s so much opportunity in the energy industry,” says Chris Rawlings, founder and chief energy officer of Richmond-based Bowerbird Energy. Photo by Caroline Martin
“There’s so much opportunity in the energy industry,” Rawlings says.
As Virginia moves to transform its electric grid to carbon-free, renewable energy in the face of climate change, it’s creating enormous opportunities for businesses big and small.
“When you’re transforming the grid, you’re making big changes. It takes a lot of work to get that done and you need qualified people to do that work,” says Rawlings, who anticipates that grid transformation will likely result in contracts and job creation for Bowerbird and other small businesses like his.
The renewable energy market was an $881.7 billion global industry in 2020, according to Portland, Oregon-based Allied Market Research, which projects it will grow to $1.98 trillion by 2030 as governments and industries push to reduce or eliminate greenhouse gas emissions in the face of climate change.
Here in Virginia, in 2020, the then-Democratic-majority Virginia General Assembly passed the Virginia Clean Economy Act (VCEA), requiring all electricity in Virginia to be produced from carbon-free power sources no later than 2050.
Political leaders, environmental activists, lobbyists and energy executives say the transition will be challenging. In addition to creating carbon-free clean energy, grid transformation can also be expected to generate controversies, technical difficulties and tradeoffs.
Bob McNab, economics department chair at Old Dominion University and director of ODU’s Dragas Center for Economic Analysis and Policy, says the renewable energy economy is projected to surge ahead of fossil fuels over the next 30 years.
What’s happening now, he adds, resembles earlier industrial revolutions in computers and cars that brought economic booms. And it poses a stark challenge: “Will Virginia lead or will Virginia follow?”
For environmental activists like Dan Crawford, chair of the Roanoke group of the Sierra Club, the transition to renewable energy is more than a business or government matter, though — it’s an existential crisis for humanity, as scientists warn that the world is on the precipice of a series of catastrophic tipping points.
“Climate change is not going to happen. It’s happening,” Crawford says, adding that switching to renewables might help save us from some terrible impacts, the worst of which “would be that no humans survive.”
Ambitious targets
Under the VCEA, Richmond-based Dominion Energy Inc., the Fortune 500 utility that serves 64.4% of Virginia, is mandated to produce all of its power for its customers in the state from renewable energy sources by 2045. Columbus, Ohio-headquartered Appalachian Power Co., which serves about 14% of the commonwealth, must meet the same target by 2050.
“When your lights are off, that’s the only thing that matters,” says Dominion Energy Virginia President Ed Baine of the importance of ensuring the reliability of Virginia’s power grid during and after the state-mandated transition to carbon-free renewable energy sources. Photo courtesy Dominion Energy Inc.
The law also requires Appalachian to increase its energy storage capacity by 400 megawatts and Dominion to boost its capacity by 2,700 megawatts, pending approval by the State Corporation Commission — all by 2035.
Finally, the General Assembly has required Dominion to have offshore wind projects capable of producing 5.2 gigawatts by 2032.
Toward this end, Dominion is developing its $9.8 billion offshore wind farm. Located 27 miles off the coast of Virginia Beach, when finished in 2026, it is expected to provide power for up to 660,000 customers.
The VCEA also grandfathers in existing nuclear power plants, allowing nuclear energy to be in the carbon-free mix with renewable energy sources such as wind and solar. (However, somewhat contradictorily, the VCEA excludes nuclear energy from its definition of renewable energy sources.)
The size and scope of Virginia’s energy grid and the commonwealth’s growing power needs are impressive and make grid transformation appear to be a daunting task.
State utilities generated 103.1 terawatt-hours of power in 2020, according to the Virginia Department of Energy. (One terawatt-hour is enough to light 1 million homes for a year.) And Virginia’s electricity demands are predicted to grow by more than 78% by 2050, according to a 2021 report from the University of Virginia’s Weldon Cooper Center for Public Service. Virginia’s status as the state with the world’s largest concentration of power-hungry data centers as well as mass adoption of electric vehicles are expected to be key drivers of that demand, the report concluded.
Yet, so far, Dominion and Appalachian have a long way to go to meet the carbon-free mandate.
Last year, just 5% of energy produced by Dominion’s Virginia Power came from renewables, up slightly from 4% in 2020. Natural gas accounted for 41% and nuclear energy was responsible for 43% of electricity generated by Dominion. Coal accounted for 11%. (Natural gas and coal emit greenhouse gases methane and carbon dioxide, which contribute to climate change.)
As for Appalachian, across all its service areas in Virginia, West Virginia and Tennessee, 16.6% of its power comes from hydroelectric, wind and solar sources, while 63.8% is generated by coal and 19.6% comes from natural gas when operating at full capacity. The company estimates that about 8% of energy for its Virginia customers comes from its own or contracted renewable energy sources.
Dominion and Appalachian executives say they’re optimistic they will hit the 2045 and 2050 targets set by the VCEA, while cautioning that fluctuations in power produced from renewables make grid reliability a challenge as the use of renewables expands.
Cliona Mary Robb, an energy law attorney at Richmond-based Thompson McMullan PC law firm and chair of the Virginia Renewable Energy Alliance, an industry group supporting renewable energy awareness, says the two utilities could meet VCEA deadlines under the current framework “if they are absolutely forced to,” but she notes that the state’s electric utility regulatory laws are “constantly changing,” and she doesn’t expect that to change anytime soon.
Appalachian President and Chief Operating Officer Aaron Walker, meanwhile, says he wants to shift his utility’s Virginia operations to carbon-free renewables “as fast as we can — as long as we’re protecting the overall reliability, security and affordability of the grid.”
Dominion Energy Virginia President Ed Baine is even more blunt: “When your lights are off, that’s the only thing that matters.”
Dominion’s offshore wind farm turbines will tower 800 feet above the water — almost 300 feet taller than the state’s tallest building, the 508-foot Westin Virginia Beach Town Center. Photo by Mark Rhodes
Prevailing winds
Regardless of caveats, Dominion and Appalachian have taken big steps since 2020 to launch renewables projects, with promises that the transformation will create thousands of new jobs.
In addition to its offshore wind project, Dominion has filed proposals with state officials for at least 23 solar and energy storage projects totaling 800 megawatts, enough to power more than 200,000 homes, with SCC approval anticipated in mid-April. And last year, Appalachian Power filed a plan to acquire or contract for solar power projects totaling 294 megawatts and wind power projects totaling 204 megawatts over the next three years.
Appalachian notes, however, that four of their solar projects were dropped by developers due to development or cost issues. “While disappointing, we are still able to meet our Clean Economy Act [annual progress] requirements,” a spokesperson says. In mid-March, the utility was set to file an updated plan with the SCC that includes several new renewable energy projects.
Meanwhile, Dominion expects to propose between 800 and 1,000 megawatts of new solar and energy storage projects each year through 2035, as it has for the past three years under VCEA requirements.
Despite this forward momentum from the utilities, state Republicans have been pushing back on the Clean Energy Act, with Gov. Glenn Youngkin calling for the act to be reevaluated this year and every five years going forward. In October 2022, he issued his own alternative vision for the state’s power grid, a proposal endorsing an “all-of-the-above” mix of energy sources, including natural gas and nuclear power. This is in keeping with national GOP messaging that a hasty grid transition away from coal and natural gas could result in crashing grids and brownouts.
“We did incredible work in the 2020 [General Assembly] session in passing the Virginia Clean Economy Act. We have our target — it’s a great target — but what matters now is smart implementation,” says Andrew Grigsby, energy services director with Richmond-based nonprofit green energy consulting firm Viridiant. “The big solar farms and the big wind farms are astounding technology. … [It will be] a more complicated grid — no doubt about that — just as my iPhone is more complicated than my calculator from 1996. But any resistance to the clean energy transformation is kind of sad.”
Political pushback and technological challenges notwithstanding, U.S. Rep. Jennifer McClellan, who, as a state senator, co-sponsored the VCEA, is optimistic Virginia will meet the 2045 and 2050 deadlines, saying that grid transformation is showing early promise.
“We’re already seeing progress with the rapid growth of solar in the state, offshore wind development and more robust energy efficiency,” McClellan says. “That has meant thousands of new jobs and more affordable energy for Virginians. … If anything, we might be able to hit our goals ahead of schedule.”
Perhaps the most significant advance in renewables is rising out of the waters off Virginia Beach’s coast where Dominion is working on its massive 2.6-gigawatt Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind project. The project will include 176 wind turbines, each towering 800 feet tall and capable of producing 14.7 megawatts.
“[It] will likely be the largest capital investment and single largest project in the history of Dominion Energy Virginia,” the State Corporation Commission concluded in a September 2022 order approving rate hikes associated with the project.
A 2020 study published by the Hampton Roads Alliance projected that operation and maintenance of the offshore wind farm will support more than 1,100 full-time jobs in Hampton Roads, paying $82 million in pay and benefits. That would generate an additional $210 million in economic impact and net $6 million in tax revenues for localities and $5 million for the state government. Additionally, the project is expected to create 900 construction jobs per year through 2026, providing $57 million in pay and benefits.
Further, ancillary offshore wind businesses could create an additional 5,200 full-time jobs, with $270 million in pay and benefits, according to the study, with an additional $740 million in economic output expected for each gigawatt of new offshore wind energy development the region services, according to the study.
Sunshine state
Utility-scale solar farms are popping up across Virginia, but the land-intensive projects have faced concerted opposition. A report by the Virginia Coastal Policy Center at William & Mary Law School indicates solar farms can be contentious in rural counties, partly because “the types of crops most likely to be displaced by utility-scale solar installations are corn, soybeans, cotton and wheat, which are also among the most-planted crops statewide.”
In late 2022, Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin set a goal of building a small modular nuclear reactor in Southwest Virginia within 10 years. Dominion Energy says that nuclear energy will be a crucial component in grid transformation. Photo by Earl Neikirk
Localities that once embraced solar farms for unused land have started pushing back on some projects. In March 2022, Page County officials rejected a 571-acre solar project, and in December 2022, Rockingham County officials quashed two proposed solar farms. This January, Culpeper County denied a 1,900-acre solar project.
Last August, however, Charlotte County greenlit the state’s largest proposed solar farm to date, the $800 million to $1.6 billion Randolph Solar project. The 800-megawatt solar farm is expected to generate power for 200,000 homes. The developer, Reston-based SolUnesco, sold the project to Dominion after receiving approval.
But to reach this point, SolUnesco had to build consensus painstakingly, says founder and CEO Francis Hodsoll. The Randolph Solar project had to get buy-in from more than 150 landowners who collectively owned more than 1,000 parcels of land around the site.
Richmond-based attorney and lobbyist Greg Habeeb represents renewable development projects across Virginia in his role as president of Gentry Locke Consulting, an arm of Roanoke-based Gentry Locke Attorneys. The solar industry is getting better at working with local governments to create comprehensive agreements that cover potential impacts from solar farms, such as increased traffic, he says, and this helps build community support for the projects.
As the solar industry grows, Virginia will also require more utility-scale battery storage to make the grid reliable. Last year, Dominion began operating its largest battery energy storage pilot project at the Scott Solar + Storage facility in Powhatan County, which provides 12 megawatts of storage. The company has two smaller projects in New Kent and Hanover counties.
Fusion point
Advancing nuclear technology could also play a role in transforming the grid, and it’s an area in which there’s some bipartisan agreement. Youngkin has called for the country’s first small modular reactor (SMR) to be built in Southwest Virginia within 10 years, and McClellan has said that the development of new nuclear energy technology could help meet VCEA targets.
As planned by the U.S. Department of Energy, SMRs will vary in output from tens to hundreds of megawatts and have safety features that older, larger nuclear plants lack.
Dominion Energy, which has been considering several SMR reactor designs under review by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, says nuclear power is a necessary part of its grid transformation plans. SMRs, the utility says, will present an “opportunity to provide an additional energy source which is available at all hours of the day to complement renewable energy.”
Dominion received approval in 2021 to extend the operational lifespan of its Surry nuclear power plant into the early 2050s; it has additionally sought to extend the life of its nuclear plant at North Anna to 2060, a matter still under review by the NRC.
A bill to establish an SMR pilot program failed in the General Assembly this session, but nuclear energy is still a hot topic among state energy stakeholders, says Robb with the Virginia Renewable Energy Alliance. With a membership that includes Dominion, Appalachian and several solar companies, the alliance sponsored a nuclear energy summit last September. “I think we’ve been sensing since last year that SMRs would play a role” in grid transformation, she explains.
Despite this year’s legislative setback for SMRs, Robb sees a place for nuclear power in the VCEA framework, although, she adds, the state’s energy policy will depend on which political party controls the legislature. All 140 General Assembly seats are on the ballot in November and many senior legislators are retiring, lending an uncertain outlook on the legislature’s balance of power.
“Coal is on its way out, but natural gas is still around,” Robb says. “I’ve often looked at natural gas as a bridge fuel” — between fossil fuels to renewable energy. “If SMRs work, their role [will be] replacing natural gas as a bridge fuel. I’m eagerly awaiting the results of the election.”
Virginia Business Deputy Editor Kate Andrews contributed to this story.
The State Corporation Commission has approved Dominion Energy Inc.’s application for the proposed $9.8 billion Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind Project (CVOW), which calls for the construction of 176 wind turbines 27 miles off the coast of Virginia Beach.
The Richmond-based Fortune 500 utility has already erected two pilot turbines for its 2.6-gigawatt Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind (CVOW) project. Installation of the wind turbines is expected to begin in 2024. When completed in 2026, the CVOW project will be the nation’s largest offshore wind farm, powering up to 660,000 homes with renewable energy.
The SCC also approved the electric interconnection and transmission facilities to connect CVOW with the existing transmission system.
“Following a full proceeding, the commission found, as directed by the General Assembly, that construction of CVOW is in the public interest,” the SCC wrote in a news release announcing the approval.
It will likely be the largest capital investment and single largest project in the history of Dominion Energy Virginia, according to the SCC.
“Our customers expect reliable, affordable energy, and offshore wind is key for delivering on that mission. We are very pleased that the commission has approved this important project that will benefit our customers,” Dominion Energy Chairman, President and CEO Robert M. Blue, said in a statement. “We are reviewing the specifics of the order, particularly the performance requirement.”
$14 monthly electric bill hikes
With the approval of the wind farm, the SCC also approved a revenue requirement of $78.702 million for the rate year from Sept. 1, 2022, through Aug. 31, 2023, to be recovered through rate increases to Dominion’s customers.
“Over the projected 35-year lifetime of the project, for a residential customer using 1,000 kilowatt-hours of electricity per month … [it] is projected to result in an average monthly bill increase of $4.72 and a peak monthly bill increase of $14.22 in 2027. The rate adjustment clause is effective for usage on and after Sept. 1.”
However, the SCC wrote in its ruling: “In so finding that these costs must be recovered from customers, the commission is also keenly aware of the ongoing rise in gas prices, inflation and other economic pressures that are impacting all utility customers. This is a prescriptive statute, and we applied it based on the record in this case.”
The SCC ordered consumer protections, including that Dominion must file a notice within 30 days if the offshore wind farm’s cost is expected to exceed the current estimate or if the final turbine installation is delayed beyond Feb. 4, 2027. Dominion must also inform the SCC about any material changes to the project and says “customers shall be held harmless for any shortfall in energy production below an annual net capacity factor of 42% as measured on a three-year rolling average.”
“The final order from the SCC affirms that CVOW meets all Virginia statutory requirements for rider cost recovery and the issuance of a Certificate of Public Convenience and Necessity for the onshore infrastructure. The order also includes a performance requirement, but does not outline the details surrounding that requirement,” Dominion noted in a news release.
Harrison Godfrey, managing director of Virginia Advanced Energy Economy, an industry association that has supported Dominion’s proposal, applauded what it called the SCC’s attempts to protect ratepayers by requiring Dominion to provide notices if the wind farm’s total costs exceed estimates as well as requiring the utility to deliver project updates to the commission on any material changes or cost overruns.
Dominion submitted its application to the SCC in November 2021. The offshore wind farm had been previously estimated to cost $7.8 billion but that cost was increased by $2 billion late last year. Bob Blue, the Richmond-based Fortune 500 utility’s chair, president and CEO attributed the increase to rising commodities expenses and general cost pressures across a number of industries due to inflation. He also cited the need to build about 17 miles of new transmission lines and other associated infrastructure for the project.
East Coast supply chain hub
The project is expected to attract significant investments to Hampton Roads while spurring as many as 900 construction jobs and 1,100 jobs in operations and maintenance, Hampton Roads Alliance President and CEO Doug Smith told Virginia Business.
“This country is building an industry from scratch, that is the offshore wind industry,” Smith said. “Dominion’s project represents an opportunity for Virginia, and candidly, Hampton Roads, in particular, to be on the forefront of that new industry. What that will allow us to do is to begin to build the supply chain hub for the East Coast and build upon the strengths of a very skilled workforce and maritime industrial base that very few other regions have.”
Virginia Advanced Energy Economy has estimated that the offshore wind industry will add 5,000 jobs to the commonwealth over time.
Hampton Roads, already home to skilled shipbuilders who build and maintain naval ships across its various shipyards, including Huntington Ingalls Industries’ Newport News Shipbuilding division, has been preparing for the needs of an offshore wind workforce. Earlier this year, the Hampton Roads Workforce Council launched its Hampton Roads Strong campaign in partnership with local community colleges and the Virginia Ship Repair Association to recruit workers to the maritime trade, skills that are transferable to the needs of offshore wind, said the workforce council’s president and CEO, Shawn Avery.
News of the SCC’s approval also comes a day after the U.S. Department of Commerce announced it was granting $11 million to the workforce council to invest in workforce development.
“This grant couldn’t come at a better time to help develop the workforce,” Avery told Virginia Business Friday. “What it’s really going to do is increase the capacity to put training in place. It’s got a lot of funding in it for recruitment of individuals. … It’s really developing a system that’s going to meet the needs of the offshore wind industry and the shipbuilding/ship repair industry and anything else we need to happen.”
The CVOW will help Virginia reach its target, codified in the Virginia Clean Economy Act (VCEA), of having 100% carbon-free energy production by 2045, and Dominion Energy’s goal of reaching net-zero carbon and methane emissions by 2050. President Joe Biden’s administration has set a 2030 target to establish 30,000 megawatts of offshore wind power capacity.
The VCEA mandates that all electricity consumed in the commonwealth must have zero carbon emissions and be generated from renewable energy sources by 2050. It also requires stringent energy-efficiency standards that are projected to generate as much as $3,500 in savings for the average Virginia household over the next 30 years, according to a study by Advanced Energy Economy, an industry trade association.
Although Republicans wield more power in Richmond this year and have expressed dissatisfaction with the VCEA, utilities do not expect significant changes to the law.
As part of Google LLC’s ambitious “moonshot” to produce all of its energy from carbon-free sources, Arlington-based The AES Corp. announced Tuesday that it has signed a 10-year agreement to provide carbon-free power for Google’s data centers in Loudoun County.
A Fortune 500 international electrical utility, AES will provide 90% of the Google data centers’ power from zero carbon emission sources, measured on an hourly basis, beginning later this year. The agreement is part of a Google initiative to run its operations on 100% carbon-free power on an hourly basis by 2030. Google has two major data centers in Loudoun currently, with a third under construction.
To provide energy for the data centers, AES is assembling a 500 MW portfolio of wind, solar, hydro and battery storage sources from a combination of AES-owned renewable energy projects as well as projects contracted from third-party energy developers. The amount of the contract was not disclosed but AES said it expects to invest $600 million in the project, creating 1,200 jobs, both permanent and construction-related, in the communities generating the power.
On April 20, for Earth Day, Google and Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai announced that five of the company’s data centers in Denmark, Finland, Iowa, Oklahoma and Oregon were now operating near or at 90% carbon-free energy. “Within a decade we aim for every Google data center, cloud region, and office campus to run on clean electricity every hour of every day,” Pichai wrote in a company blog post. “Our carbon-free goal is as ambitious as other moonshots like building a quantum computer or developing a self-driving car. I’ve never been more optimistic about our collective ability — as governments, companies and individuals — to come together and chart a more sustainable path forward for our planet. We’ll continue to lead by example in our operations, support our partners, and build helpful products to build a carbon-free future for all.”
“Last year, Google set an ambitious sustainability goal of committing to 100% 24/7 carbon-free energy by 2030. Today, we are proud that through our collaboration with Google, we are making 24/7 carbon-free energy a reality for their data centers in Virginia,” AES President and CEO Andrés Gluski said in a statement. “This first-of-its-kind solution, which we co-created with Google, will set a new sustainability standard for companies and organizations seeking to eliminate carbon from their energy supply.”
Google and AES formed a strategic alliance in 2019 to leverage Google Cloud technology in clean energy efforts.
Michael Terrell, Director of Energy at Google, said, “Not only is this partnership with AES an important step towards achieving Google’s 24/7 carbon-free energy goal, it also lays a blueprint for other companies looking to decarbonize their own operations. Our hope is that this model can be replicated to accelerate the clean energy transition, both for companies and, eventually, for power grids.”
With $9.66 billion in 2020 revenue, AES is one of the world’s largest power utilities, generating and distributing electricity in 15 nations across North America, South America, Europe and Asia. It employs more than 10,500 people worldwide.
The governor announced Tuesday the Clean Energy Virginia initiative, a project that aims to generate 100% of Virginia’s electricity from carbon-free sources by 2045 while investing in solar and wind energy and battery storage.
“Virginia has a unique opportunity to fundamentally transform the state’s electric grid in a way that powers our COVID-19 economic recovery and drives down harmful carbon pollution,” Gov. Ralph Northam said in a statement Tuesday. The Virginia Department of Mines, Minerals and Energy will host a five-part webinar series in July and August to educate businesses and citizens on the goals of the Virginia Clean Economy Act, which was passed in the 2020 General Assembly session and took effect July 1.
Last fall, Northam signed Executive Order 43, which set a goal to produce all of the state’s energy from carbon-free sources, including wind, solar and nuclear, by 2050. The announcement Tuesday aims for all carbon-producing power sources that produce Virginia’s electricity to retire by 2045.
Secretary of Commerce and Trade Brian Ball said in a statement that the initiative also will provide education and resources to clean energy companies seeking to build or expand in Virginia, with hopes that the business sector will grow.
Tuesday’s announcement from Northam comes after Dominion Energy Inc. announced the sale of its natural gas holdings to an affiliate of Berkshire Hathaway for $9.7 billion, including $5.7 billion in existing debt, as well as the Virginia-based utility giant’s decision, with Duke Energy Corp., to abandon the $8 billion-plus natural gas pipeline, the Atlantic Coast Pipeline.
Meanwhile, Dominion debuted in late June its massive offshore wind pilot project, which is the first in U.S. federal waters, 27 miles off the coast of Virginia Beach. The utility company plans to build a $7.8 billion, 200-turbine wind farm by 2026, which would be the largest such project in the nation.
The DMME webinars, which start July 22, will focus on energy efficiency, distributed solar generation, energy storage, utility-scale solar and onshore wind, and offshore wind. To register, visit this site.
Richmond-based Dominion Energy Inc. and Denmark-based Ørsted A/S announced Tuesday that major components of its $300 million Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind (CVOW) pilot project are being shipped to North America — which is on-schedule, despite the pandemic.
Major components for the two, massive 6-megawatt Siemens Gamesa offshore wind turbines from Denmark and Germany are en route via cargo ship to Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. The turbines will be 600 feet tall when measured from the ocean’s surface to the tip of the top blade — or taller than the Washington Monument — and will be able to power 3,000 homes at peak production, according to Dominion.
Construction is expected to begin later this spring and the turbines are scheduled to be in operation by the end of the year.
Dominion selected the Spanish renewable energy engineering company in January as the preferred turbine supplier for its offshore wind farm 27 miles off the coast of Virginia Beach. Construction for the pilot project began in June 2019, when Dominion broke ground on an onshore power substation for the turbines near Camp Pendleton.
“This is a monumental step toward the installation of the first offshore wind turbines in federal waters, which will deliver clean, renewable energy to our customers,” Mark D. Mitchell, Dominion vice president of generation construction, said in a statement.
The pilot project is the first phase in Dominion’s plan, announced in September 2019, to build a $7.8 billion, 220-turbine wind farm off the Virginia Beach coastline by 2026. The wind farm, which would be the largest in the U.S., is part of Dominion’s goal of achieving net-zero carbon dioxide and methane emissions from its electricity generation and gas infrastructure operations by 2050. The entire project would produce enough zero-carbon electricity to power 650,000 Virginia homes.
Dominion this month is also conducting ocean surveys to map the seabed of the 112,800-acre lease area to determine impacts to ocean and sea life and develop the project’s Construction and Operations Plan to be submitted to the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM).
Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam announced Sunday that he has signed the Virginia Clean Economy Act into law, requiring state electricity providers to become 100% carbon free by 2050.
The legislation sets a 2045 carbon-free deadline for Virginia power operations for Dominion Energy Inc. and a 2050 deadline for Appalachian Power. It also requires virtually all coal-fired electrical plants to close in Virginia by 2024. The law advances Dominion’s proposal to build the nation’s largest offshore wind farm off the coast of Virginia Beach and encourages the development of solar and onshore wind assets. Under the new laws, Virginia will also join the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative.
“These new clean energy laws propel Virginia to leadership among the states in fighting climate change,” Northam said in a statement. “They advance environmental justice and help create clean energy jobs. In Virginia, we are proving that a clean environment and a strong economy go hand-in-hand.”
Richmond-based Dominion Energy Inc. announced Tuesday a new goal of achieving net-zero carbon dioxide and methane emissions from its electricity generation and gas infrastructure operations by 2050. The new benchmark significantly raises the stakes for Dominion, which announced in October 2019 plans for reaching 80% carbon reduction by 2050.
The company previously committed to cut methane emissions from its natural gas operations by 50% between 2010 and 2030 and carbon emissions from its power generating facilities by 80% between 2005 and 2050. With only 30 years to achieve the new net zero goal, Dominion has made several announcements in recent months regarding renewable energy projects, but remains connected to its controversial Atlantic Coast Pipeline project.
In September, Dominion filed a proposal to build the nation’s largest offshore wind farm off the coast of Virginia Beach by 2026. The proposed $7.8 billion, 220 wind-turbine farm would build on Dominion’s $300 million, two-turbine Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind (CVOW) pilot offshore wind energy project currently under development 27 miles off the Virginia Beach coast.
And in January, Arlington County and Amazon.com Inc. entered into agreements with Dominion to purchase power offsets for local government operations and Amazon’s HQ2 East Coast headquarters from a solar farm Dominion is building in Southern Virginia. Dominion is constructing a solar farm in Pittsylvania County anticipated to be operational by 2022 and is expected to generate approximately 80% (79,000 megawatt-hours of energy) of Arlington County’s electric energy needs for local government operations. Dominion will sell the solar energy produced into the wholesale electric grid and charge at market rates.
“Dominion Energy already has made important progress on emissions. This new commitment sets an even higher bar that I am confident we can — and will — reach,” said Thomas F. Farrell II, chairman, president and CEO of Dominion, in a statement. “Net zero emissions will be good for all of our stakeholders — for our customers, communities, employees and investors.”
In September 2014, however, Dominion announced plans to build and operate a $4.5 billion to $5 billion, 550-mile natural gas pipeline (now expanded to a 600-mile, $7 billion project), which has faced opposition from landowners in the project’s pathway as well as environmental groups. The project would transport fracked natural gas from West Virginia to North Carolina. This fracking process necessary to extract the natural gas that would be passed through pipelines being built by Dominion and other project partners has been linked to increased amounts of methane, National Geographic reported in August 2019. Dominion holds a 48% stake of the project, according to the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis.
Dominion does not currently engage in hydraulic fracturing (or fracking), says a Dominion gas infrastructure spokesperson, Ann Nallo.
While Bryan K. Stephens, president and CEO of the Hampton Roads Chamber, said the ACP is “necessary infrastructure that would ensure our business growth is met,” in an October 2019 editorial, courts have challenged permits for the project.
According to a Jan. 7 press release from the Charlottesville-based Southern Environmental Law Center, there have been eight instances since May 2018 that a federal court or agency has revoked or suspended Atlantic Coast Pipeline permits. With permits revoked, Dominion ceased construction with less than 6% of the project in the ground.
“We do remain fully committed to completing the Atlantic Coast Pipeline,” Nallo says. “Natural gas in general is an integral part of our energy portfolio, allowing us to drastically and quickly reduce reliance on coal. It’s also the reliable energy source that is helping us quickly ramp up solar and wind projects since we are lacking the battery storage technology — though we are looking at ways to advance that technology. The Atlantic Coast Pipeline responds to current critical energy shortages in the region, particularly Hampton Roads, Virginia, and eastern North Carolina.”
Dominion supplies energy to more than seven million customers in 18 states and has more than $100 billion in assets. The company also announced Tuesday that its 2019 annual earnings were $1.4 billion, down from $2.4 billion for 2018.
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