Massive foundation posts arrive for Dominion’s offshore wind farm

The first eight monopiles, the wind-turbine foundation posts for Dominion Energy’s $9.8 billion offshore wind farm, arrived at Portsmouth Marine Terminal on Oct. 19, and state officials and Dominion executives celebrated their arrival from Germany Friday.

In a ceremony Friday, Gov. Glenn Youngkin, Dominion Chair, President and CEO Bob Blue and state and local dignitaries marked the arrival of the monopiles, instrumental components in the construction of the planned 176 wind turbines to be erected 27 miles off the coast of Virginia Beach, making up a 2.6-gigawatt wind farm that will power 660,000 homes. 

Dominion’s proposed Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind Project will be the nation’s largest offshore wind farm and aligns with a state mandate that Richmond-based utility Dominion Energy generate all power from carbon-free sources by 2045. The Biden administration also has a goal of reaching 30 gigawatts of offshore wind energy capacity by 2030.

The monopiles, which are each about 272 feet long — about the length of a football field  — and 31 feet in diameter, will be driven into the seabed. Each turbine, when fully assembled, will be 836 feet high. 

Construction on the wind farm is set to begin in May, and the turbines will be operational by the end of 2026, Blue said. 

“This is the real beginning of the offshore construction part of the project,” Blue said. “To get the first delivery of them, on time and on budget, is critical for our company, for our customers, for the state, and we’re very excited to have all those partners here,” he said. 

He described seeing the monopiles arrive at Portsmouth Marine Terminal as “a great moment. … Seeing these and seeing the size makes it even more real.”

Massive single vertical steel cylinders, the monopiles are manufactured in Germany by EEW SPC, and the trip to ship the. across the Atlantic takes about 2 1/2 weeks. Eight will be delivered at a time until all 176 arrive in Hampton Roads.  

In late September, the federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management announced it completed its environmental assessment of the project, a little more than two years after the review began. Approval of the entire project from BOEM is expected in the coming days.

Should the project attain approval, Dominion would still be required to receive BOEM’s final OK for its construction and operations plan, which could occur by February 2024. Virginia’s State Corporation Commission approved the project in August 2022.

Dominion is already operating two wind turbines off the Virginia Beach coast as part of a pilot project. The company said that more than 750 Virginia-based workers, about 530 of whom are in Hampton Roads, are working on the project or with businesses supporting it. Another 1,000 jobs are expected to be created to operate and maintain the turbines.