Dominion to revive Virginia Beach offshore wind project
Visions of hundreds of wind turbines off the Virginia Beach coastline once again danced through the heads of politicians and business leaders after Dominion Energy on Monday announced a partnership with a Danish company that’s the world leader in offshore wind development.
Virginia’s largest utility said its agreement with DONG Energy commits it to only two 6-megawatt test turbines that would start spinning in 2020.
But executives of both companies said they can foresee the deal paving the way for a large-scale wind farm in federal waters leased by Dominion 27 miles off the coast.
Francis Slingsby, who oversees partnerships for DONG in North America, called the agreement a steppingstone to the “jobs, manufacturing, port traffic and innovation” that would come to Virginia with commercial development of offshore wind power.
Virginia Beach Mayor Will Sessoms boasted that DONG’s involvement promises to make Hampton Roads the “East Coast Silicon Valley hub” for clean energy technologies.