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byline: Paul Bibeau

A gust of new jobs

Twenty-seven miles as the seagull flies off the coast of , two wind turbines, each about 600 feet tall — taller than the Washington Monument — have the ability to generate 12 megawatts of , enough to 3,000 homes.

In three years, 174 more wind turbines will join them with more than 200 times the power of the first two windmills, enough to power 660,000 homes. They will also be taller than the first two pilot wind turbines, rising 800 feet out of the water.

The 2.6-gigawatt, $9.8 billion farm from Richmond-based utility is anticipated to support 1,100 direct and indirect full-time jobs across the region, paying $82 million annually in salaries and benefits, according to a 2020 economic impact study commissioned by the . Construction is expected to create 900 direct and indirect jobs statewide, paying $57 million in salaries and benefits. And the study says the project could trigger even greater downstream economic growth as new businesses locate in the region to be part of the offshore wind energy supply chain.

To see how Hampton Roads is preparing for this, you have to sweep 50 miles west of the turbines, to Tidewater Community College’s campus, where the school’s 20,000-square-foot Skilled Trades Academy is adding 13,000 more square feet of space.

“We’ve got to get our facilities ready for … this new demand,” says Tamara Williams, TCC’s vice president of workforce solutions. “We are ramping up all of the skilled trades that can support the offshore wind onshore.”

In 2021, TCC added 20 welding booths and other maritime training equipment to the academy. Now, it’s adding more room for HVAC and electrical training. Construction is starting this spring, and new classes will begin in August.

TCC’s expansion is part of a larger effort by businesses, government officials, economic development groups and educators to prepare for an expected increase in demand for an array of skilled and unskilled workers. Dominion estimates a boost in everything from engineering specialists to carpenters, HVAC technicians and tug operators beginning this year and lasting through 2026. Some of these new offshore wind industry jobs will require specialized training. Wind turbine technicians, for example, will need courses from schools certified by the Copenhagen-based Global Wind Organisation (GWO). The courses teach safety measures when working at extreme heights and educate prospective CVOW workers on fire safety and sea survival.

Jeremy Slayton, spokesperson for Dominion, says in an email that the region has the ingredients to make offshore wind a sizeable industry.

“Hampton Roads is well suited to be a supply chain hub for offshore wind projects along the East Coast,” Slayton says. “The region has the first-in-class Port of Virginia, which is ideal to support offshore wind. The port has no overhead restrictions, deepwater channels and an experienced maritime workforce.”

Shawn Avery, president and CEO of the , says the region has time to train this growing workforce while those two turbines are chugging along in the surf, waiting to be joined by the others.

Already economic activity is percolating because of the project. In June 2022, Viking Life-Saving Equipment, a Danish company that builds safety gear, opened an office in . Also in 2022, Seajacks UK Limited, a British company that operates “jack-up vessels” that can lift themselves above sea level to install and maintain offshore platforms, opened an office in Virginia Beach’s Town Center. Finally, the Port of Virginia picked Skanska USA, an American subsidiary of a Swedish company, to perform a $223 million redevelopment of 72 acres of the as a staging area for components of the wind turbines.

Many of the new jobs being created for the offshore wind industry will be familiar to Hampton Roads. Kosal Sarou, who oversees hiring of skilled workers for Skanska’s Portsmouth Marine Terminal redevelopment, ticks off the kinds of workers needed for the project: carpenters, concrete finishers and crane operators.

However, some of the new positions will need workers with training not widely available in Hampton Roads. Right now, GWO-certified courses for technicians and other workers who build and maintain the turbines are scarce in the region. Currently, the only training provider is ENSA North America in Norfolk, which offers four classes, ranging from a basic climbing course for a worker who might have to climb a turbine occasionally to an expanded wind-turbine skills class that includes rescue and first aid instruction. TCC plans to provide GWO training starting in January 2024, Williams says.

The big challenge, Avery says, is to grow a workforce with a mix of skills so Hampton Roads can meet the surge in hiring and “we are not stealing from one industry to … fill the other.”  

Chesapeake preps 1,400-acre industrial park

Whenever a big economic development announcement from another state pops up in the news, President and CEO Doug Smith can count on his phone ringing.

“I get a call from somebody saying, ‘Why didn’t we get that?’” says Smith. “And the answer is real simple: We didn’t have 500 acres or 1,500 acres … or whatever the need was.”

In November 2022, City Council began addressing the problem, rezoning 1,420 acres of agricultural land for the , an industrial park. Council allocated $14.3 million to the Chesapeake Economic Development Authority for a down payment on the property. The EDA has a contract to buy the land for $37 million from farmer Frank T. Williams, with an option to acquire 2,602 acres nearby.

The city landed a $750,000 state grant in January to help with preliminary surveys and environmental assessments prior to developing the industrial park. City officials expect the preliminary work to be completed this year. 

Chesapeake hopes the Coastal Virginia Commerce Park will attract a large semiconductor or microchip manufacturer, according to Brian Solis, deputy city manager for community development.

Virginia Economic Development Partnership President and CEO Jason El Koubi estimates the lack of “project-ready sites” in Virginia has cost the state more than 55,000 jobs and $124 billion in capital investment since 2016, as businesses considered Virginia for projects and then chose to locate assets in other states. In January, Gov. Glenn Youngkin announced $90 million in development grants for 21 sites across the state, including the one in Chesapeake.

“The commonwealth has fewer than 10 project-ready sites (certified) above 250 acres,” El Koubi wrote in an email.

Chesapeake City Manager Chris Price says the development is part of an effort to grow the mix of industries in Hampton Roads.

“For a long time [the region has] been heavily dependent on the Department of , but we really are diversifying that portfolio,” he says, noting ‘s $9.8 billion Coastal Virginia project and Fortune 500 retailer Dollar Tree Inc., headquartered in Chesapeake.

Smith says federal initiatives such as the CHIPS and Science Act of 2022 will make a sizable amount of federal funding available for growing high-tech manufacturing, from semiconductors to vehicles.

But there’s a catch: “If you don’t have a site to put them on, you’re not in the game, right?”  

CarLotz, Need Supply founders launch schools startup

For about a decade after meeting at a business function, Michael Bor and Chris Bossola met for lunch periodically, swapping stories about their shared experiences in launching and scaling companies.

Their conversations eventually landed on what they say could transform funding for public schools nationwide.

The two have plenty of entrepreneurial experience. Bossola founded -based fashion retailer , which also ran a robust online business and merged with Seattle-based apparel retailer Totokaelo in 2019. The businesses, run by Bossola’s holding company NSTO Corp., shuttered due to the pandemic.

In 2011, Bor co-founded Inc., a Richmond-based used vehicle consignment retailer that was valued at $827 million when it went public in October 2020. CarLotz sold 9,748 vehicles in 2021 and completed a merger with San Francisco-based Shift Technologies Inc. in December 2022. 

Bor says CarLotz’s 2020 IPO was a major “wealth event” for the company and its investors. Within days of CarLotz going public, he received a donation request from his alma mater, Phillips Academy, a private prep school in Andover, Massachusetts. “I thought that was remarkably sophisticated of them to do that,” he says.

It also sparked an idea, which he discussed with Bossola over lunch. Bor wanted to create a for-profit aimed at helping American public schools set up audited, well-controlled endowments to fund everything from overtime for language immersion programs to ping pong tables for student clubs.

“I thought it was a great idea,” Bossola says. “I felt like it could have a major impact.”

The launched last year. It has raised $4.5 million in funding, Bor said, and he and Bossola are planning a 10-school pilot program in Virginia. They’re still considering candidates, Bor says, “and if we prove that this works … then we will scale it nationally.”

The Endowment Project will act as a vendor for the endowments and charge the endowments for fundraising and administrative services.

Karen Booth Adams, CEO of Richmond-area investment firm Hot Holdings and an early investor in CarLotz, says she’s making a “significant investment” in The Endowment Project.

Booth Adams says she was impressed with how Bor communicated with CarLotz investors about “the good, the bad and the ugly every step of the way.”  

Tech students dig into high-tech mock mine

Robots don’t belong on volleyball courts, but for more than a decade students had no other large, sandy place to test out robots.

It was “a real lost opportunity” that students didn’t have a dedicated space to work with mining machines, says Erik Westman, a professor and interim department head at Tech’s Department of Mining and Minerals Engineering.

Now students have a mock mining to study challenges facing the increasingly automated mining industry.

Built as part of a $73.5 million renovation of Holden Hall completed last year, the Center for Autonomous Mining Systems is a 1,200-square-foot mock mine with three large rectangular pits that can be filled with mined material like crushed limestone.

Before building the lab, school officials consulted mining companies about skills they’re seeking from today’s workers, Westman says.

“One of the biggest issues they’re dealing with is all of the data coming from the equipment,” he says. At the new center, students learn to analyze data from robotic equipment to make mining safer and more efficient.

Tech senior Christopher Keesee wants to find a job in data analytics, “where we’re looking at cycle times … [and] looking at drilling data and things like that to optimize their operation.”

Within the next five years, students might be able to model entire mining systems in the mock mine, with researchers making efficiency improvements to aid the industry, Westman says.

Hard-rock mining companies are already taking steps to automate, moving faster than other kinds of mining operations such as coal mining, according to Ken Matney, senior electrical engineer with Simmons Equipment Co., a Tazewell County-based mining equipment manufacturer.

Market firm Technavio says mining industry investment in robotics is expected to increase by more than $2 billion from 2021 to 2026.

Tech students are also using the mining lab to test mining robots they are designing and building for a -sponsored simulated lunar robotic mining competition.

NASA Lunabotics Project Manager Richard Johanboeke says the competition preps students for earthbound high-tech jobs as well as work that could further space exploration: “These industries will create a workforce poised to lead a new space-based economy and add to the economic strength of our country.” NASA expects to launch the Polar Resources Ice Mining Experiment-1 (PRIME-1) later this year to search for water at the moon’s lunar South Pole.

Balance of power

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 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,” 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 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 , 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 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.
“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 , 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 . (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
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 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 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
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 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.

McLean startup raises $75M for air taxi network

Fritz Lang’s 1927 film “Metropolis” predicted cities with flying cars, while Hanna-Barbera followed that vision 35 years later with “The Jetsons” and its commuter “skyways.” Now, however, air taxis are close to becoming reality.

The industry could generate up to $16 billion in new business investments in Virginia and carry as many as 66 million passengers by 2045, according to a January report from the Virginia Innovation Partnership Corp. and the state commerce and trade secretary.

But those taxis will require management so they don’t crash into other aircraft. That’s where -based Inc. comes in.

AURA — which stands for Advanced Ultra Reliable Aviation — is developing a secure, regulatory-compliant network that can control unmanned, remotely piloted aircraft on extended flights beyond an operator’s visual line of sight. In November 2022, AURA raised $75 million in financing from investment companies including Fortress Investment Group LLC and Mudrick Capital Management LP.

Fortress Investment Group Managing Partner Drew McKnight, an AURA board member, says the company will be a “critical innovator” in the infant industry.

According to AURA CEO and co-founder Bill Tolpegin, the company’s proprietary could eventually shuttle people through cities.

AURA, he notes, has an exclusive license from the Federal Communications Commission to operate its network on the 450 MHz band, which is reserved for aviation purposes. AURA’s secure, private network “doesn’t touch the internet,” he says, enhancing flight safety and reducing signal latency.

Thomas Alberts, an engineering professor at Old Dominion University, notes that AURA’s network signal frequency lets it travel through “trees and obstacles and longer distances.”

AURA tested its network in Maryland in July 2022. Pilots flew a Cessna 208 Caravan while the network tested its ability to switch control of the plane from one ground station to the other.

The next step is to build a network for specific companies. At first, that will probably be cargo companies, which will use the network for delivery routes.

Lance Sherry, director for the Center for Air Systems at George Mason University, says advances like autonomous cargo aircraft and air taxis will make communications systems like AURA’s “absolutely critical. … As we go into the future, the vehicles are going to be communicating more and more with each other to avoid collisions … [and] plan their routes so that they’re conflict-free.”  

Civilian life

Paul Valentine is on a winding career path. After leaving the Army more than a decade ago, he got his commercial driver’s license at Blue Ridge in Weyers Cave.

He was taking classes to try to get an engineering degree as well but quit to take full-time work at trucking companies after his wife became pregnant. In 2021, Valentine started school again at Blue Ridge; he tried calculus but switched to business management. 

Valentine hopes to earn an associate degree and eventually transfer to a four-year college to get his bachelor’s degree in business administration. He doesn’t know what sector he wants to dive into, but that’s OK with him.  

“The community college system here in Virginia is so flexible,” says Valentine. “If you’re struggling in one department, they encourage you to … find something that will fit better for you as an individual.” 

In September 2022, the state reached a milestone in its decade-old Virginia Values Veterans (V3) program, when the 100,000th landed a job through the program’s efforts. A free training and certification program for employers, V3 teaches companies best practices for recruiting, hiring and retaining veterans and their family members, who are considered excellent prospects for certain skilled jobs.

Virginia has 700,000 veterans, a higher concentration than most states, and nationwide about 200,000 people leave service each year. That leaves a readymade workforce — and not just in Hampton Roads, home of the world’s largest naval base. Community colleges across the state have programs to train former military members for civilian jobs, about 300,000 of which are currently unfilled in Virginia. State workforce officials and agencies have been particularly focused on how to encourage these service members to stay and work in Virginia.

“We want these highly trained, skilled and disciplined men and women to find suitable employment here,” Gov. Glenn Youngkin said in a September 2022 statement. 

Community building

Shawn Avery, president and CEO of the , says the key to keeping vets in Virginia is connecting them with education, and community colleges play a major role in that effort.

According to (VCCS) data, 26,000 students in the state’s 23 community colleges last year had some military status — including veterans, active-duty and dependents.
That’s about 13% of all community college enrollees. and Northern Virginia Community College each had about a quarter of these students, and Germanna and Virginia Peninsula community colleges each had more than 2,000.

Veterans and administrators say community colleges provide a variety of programs to help vets navigate post-military work. The colleges train vets for their first jobs after the service but also assist them in building a long-term career that might look very different from what they did before.

The Hampton Roads Workforce Council has weekly meetings to match vets with V3-certified employers so people leaving the military can find exactly what training they need to land a job right away. Local community colleges provide that training.

“So now you have a live feedback loop directly from the folks who are hiring whether that certification brings value or not,” says Sultan Camp, director of veteran employment centers at HRWC.

The Department of ‘s SkillBridge program also helps service members link up with apprenticeships or internships during the last few weeks of their time in the military.

Steven Borden, TCC’s Center for Military and Veterans Education director, notes that the SkillBridge program helps vets get jobs such as machinists, digital court reporters or industry workers. Tidewater also has a program aimed at speeding the hiring of former service members as shipyard welders, by helping them obtain certifications while the shipyard background check process takes place. And the college offers eight-week and 16-week truck driving programs that set up graduates to earn about $50,000 annually to start. 

Tidewater Community College’s educational offerings for veterans include a fast-track welding program, says Steven Borden, director of TCC’s Center for Military and Veterans Education. Photo by Mark Rhodes

Bob Dixon, military liaison and enrollment adviser at Germanna, which has campuses in Culpeper, Orange and Stafford counties and Fredericksburg, helps vets identify and achieve short-term and long-term goals at community colleges. 

An Army vet who served for more than 20 years, Dixon explains that “in the military, we talk about campaigns and battles. When someone leaves the service … we kind of help them focus not only on the 10-meter target but the long-term strategy to use training and education, opportunities and resources for the rest of their career or life.”

Something new

Takesha McMiller, director of military and veterans services at NOVA, says that college advisers spend a lot of time asking students whether they want to jump into a civilian job that’s like what they did in the military, or if they want to find a new path. “And to be honest,” she says, “you get a little bit of both.”

For instance, Mitch Benefield, a 20-year Air Force veteran, earned an associate degree in business administration from Rappahannock Community College, but now he’s lining up another degree in general engineering while working at Huntington Ingalls Industries Inc. as a civilian contractor for Langley Air Force Base’s communications directorate. 

VCCS’ Credits2Careers online portal makes career strategizing easier for vets, allowing them to load their military occupations and other data into the system to figure out what degrees they’re closest to achieving. “It’s a great tool where they can actually use the information and see what’s going to be the best fit for them academically,” says Emily Jones-Green, the system’s coordinator of credit for prior learning.

Helping veterans shorten their time in college helps reduce costs. Like World War II vets and many others, current veterans receive educational benefits after their service. The Post-9/11 G.I. Bill provides education funding to anyone who was on active duty for 90 days or more after Sept. 10, 2001, with those who serve longer earning more funding. The money can be used to cover tuition, fees and up to $1,000 for books and supplies, and vets can transfer their G.I. Bill benefits to family members. 

“It’s a fantastic program,” says Brandie Weaver, assistant director of military and veteran services at Virginia Peninsula Community College in Hampton and James City County. Many vets and their dependents rely on the program for tuition, housing and books, she notes.

Marine Corps veteran Wes Smith says the program covers most of his expenses as a student at Danville Community College, where he trained in the graphic imaging program and landed a job at a printing company. Now he’s studying business at the college, with plans to launch his own personal training company. 

In addition to V3, the state has the G3 program (formerly promoted as “Get Skilled, Get a Job, Get Ahead”), which provides tuition assistance for any Virginia resident whose family income falls below a certain threshold. They must also enroll in programs for certain industries where workers are in demand, such as early childhood education, health care, information technology, public safety and skilled trades.  

Even though the state’s G3 program isn’t just for veterans, it has unique advantages for them, according to Michele Hilts, assistant director of financial aid and veterans affairs at Virginia Western Community College in Roanoke. 

 “If you’re eligible, [G3] pays 100% of your tuition,” Hilts says, so vets can save their federal benefits for future studies. “Let’s say they want to do welding for a couple of years … and get their certificate. That can be paid for by G3. They won’t touch their [G.I. Bill] benefits. If they decide to come back later [and study something else], then they can use it. That’s probably the biggest advantage to veterans specifically.”

Germanna’s Dixon advises his students to save part of their G.I. Bill funding too, “because I would say to them perhaps 10, 15 years from now, your boss is gonna say, ‘You know, I’d really like to make you a manager if you had a bachelor’s degree.’”

Community colleges are ideal for this kind of experimentation, says Don Stowers, New River Community College’s veterans officer. Vets can earn several degrees and certificates affordably and without investing too much time, which encourages them to stay and work in Virginia. “The beauty of a community college,” he says, “is that there’s something for everyone.” 

State’s oldest bank to trade on Nasdaq

In 1858, the Mount Vernon Ladies’ Association bought George Washington’s former home, seeking to preserve the historic estate for a country on the brink of civil war.

A key player in this transaction was -based , which also protected the association’s assets during the Civil War. Now, the 171-year-old community bank is making big changes, including plans to start trading on the composite in the next few months.

As of the third quarter of 2022, Burke & Herbert recorded $3.5 billion in assets, and in early January its stock was trading at $73.70 per share on the OTC markets.

David Boyle, president and CEO of the bank and its holding company, Burke & Herbert Financial Services Corp., says that when he joined the bank in 2019, the board of directors wanted him to take it “where … it hadn’t been before.”

The bank established a Fredericksburg market headquarters in June 2021, opened a base of operations for commercial services in Loudoun County in October 2021, and in 2022 expanded its commercial services to . In November 2022, Burke & Herbert announced plans to go public on the Nasdaq.

Now board chair of the holding company, too, Boyle says that entering Richmond’s market will help diversify the bank’s commercial and industrial business, and the Nasdaq listing will give shareholders greater liquidity.

Bruce Whitehurst, president and CEO of the Virginia Bankers Association, says the 2008 Great Recession reduced the number of new banks opening, so existing banks have filled the void by expanding their markets.

Boyle says Burke & Herbert plans to open its first Richmond branch this year, and two more could follow in 2024. The bank’s biggest challenge is building brand awareness in the state capital, he says, but adds the bank is large enough to lend significant funds and build business relationships.

Steve Yeakel, president and CEO of the Virginia Association of Community Banks, says that to be successful, a community bank needs to find the “sweet spot” between and personal service.

“Surveys show that people want technology for routine transactions,” he says, “but a real person when they have a question, a problem or an opportunity.”

Burke & Herbert could expand to Hampton Roads and west along the Interstate 81 corridor, Boyle says, but that expansion won’t be immediate. “We’re gonna digest the investments we’re making now.”

Tech researchers aim to transform power grid

Across the American landscape about 3,000 more wind turbines have popped up every year since 2005, and more than 2.7 million homes in the U.S. now sport panels.

The also is transforming, but the system is still better suited to centralized coal-fired plants, not widely dispersed sources of renewable .

A four-person team wants to change that.

In September 2022, the National Science Foundation awarded the group a $1.5 million grant to help design the components of this greener grid, a four-year project.

Yuhao Zhang, head of the project and an assistant professor in Virginia Tech’s Bradley Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, says the team will build new switches that can control the flow of from a wide variety of different energy sources.

“We’re going to explore the use of a new semiconductor material, which has superior … electrical properties over silicon,” he says. The switches will be triggered by light signals rather than electricity, making them quicker and more reliable.

“[It’s] gonna basically give us a smarter grid,” says assistant professor Christina DiMarino, another member of the team, along with assistant professors Dong Dong and Xiaoting Jia. DiMarino says the grid will be more resilient during outages as well.

Zhang’s specialty is in semiconductor ; he will experiment with new materials and devices in the system. DiMarino studies power electronics packaging, the “black boxes” of epoxy material that house multiple computer chips.

Dong will create new switches that react to light signals. He says the current switches in power grids transmit signals with electricity, which can create electromagnetic interference.

“We can make the entire system more efficient,” Dong says, “and you also want to make the system smaller, compact and eventually [have a] much lower cost.”

Zhang says the Tech team plans to create proof-of-concept prototypes of the switches that could be installed into the grid. He also says the project will help identify what challenges industry leaders will face in transforming power grids with the new , as well as how long such a shift would take.

The team will add research from their project to undergraduate and graduate courses, so Virginia Tech engineering students will have a front-row seat to what could be the birth of the next generation of power technology.

U.Va. leads Pentagon hypersonic project

Like a “Top Gun” fighter pilot, Christopher Goyne feels the need for speed.

Goyne directs the ‘s Laboratory and leads a new team developing engines that will enable more maneuverable missiles, jets and — eventually — spacecraft via a $4.5 million Department of award announced in October.

Under the three-year effort, will spearhead work with , the University of Minnesota, North Carolina State University and several industry partners, including Arlington-based Boeing Co., to develop components for a supersonic combustion ramjet, or scramjet, an air-breathing that will function through extreme turns at speeds above Mach 5. The work includes engine design, maneuverability control and operational resiliency and will culminate in wind tunnel tests at U.Va. and Langley Research Center in Hampton.

“They’re a very simple engine by concept, but difficult to practically implement because of the very high temperatures and high speeds involved in operating these engines,” Goyne says. Air coming into the engine at Mach 5 can reach 1,700 degrees, which would destroy a commercial jet engine.

The project comes at a crucial time as the Pentagon races to catch up with adversaries like China and Russia, which have developed and tested hypersonic missiles.

Goyne says the award builds on 35 years of hypersonic research at U.Va. and relies on the university’s wind tunnel, one of the few in the world that can conduct extended tests in hypersonic conditions. The university has previously worked on projects with the Air Force, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency and NASA, which in 2019 named U.Va. one of three national hypersonic science centers.

“U.Va. has extensive experience over many years doing scramjet engine ground testing and advanced measurement diagnostics development,” says Kevin Bowcutt, chief scientist of hypersonics at Boeing.

The award was made through the University Consortium for Applied Hypersonics, a network of universities, government agencies and industries developing hypersonic technology for national defense. It also aims to attract students to hypersonics research.

Nicholas Gushue, a graduate research assistant on the team, says U.Va.’s reputation in the field drew him to the university. “They … continue to get some really exciting projects,” he says. “They’ve graduated a lot of influential people from here.”

“We have an important contribution that we can make to … national security,” Goyne says. “That’s a responsibility that we all feel as well.”