Dominion Energy has announced today that the 12MW Coastal Virginia offshore wind farm off the US east coast has completed reliability testing and is ready to enter full commercial operations to deliver electricity to Virginia customers.
The company said that the next significant regulatory step is for the project to submit the final documentation for the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) to complete its technical review, which is expected to be complete by the end of the year.
Turbines will remain in operation during this review process, it added.
Dominion Energy vice president of offshore wind Joshua Bennett said: “Our team has worked diligently with key stakeholders and regulators while safely navigating through the coronavirus pandemic to complete this vitally important project that is a key step to reducing carbon emissions.”
Installation of the two pilot turbines was completed in June.
Orsted served as the offshore engineering, procurement and construction lead for the pilot project.
LE Myers Company with members of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, performed the onshore construction work.
Dominion Energy will apply lessons learned from the permitting, design, installation and operations experience from the pilot project to its proposed 2.6GW commercial project, which is on track to commence construction in 2024.
Work on the 2.6GW wind farm could create approximately 900 jobs and $143m in economic impact a year during construction and 1100 jobs and almost $210m in economic impact each year during operation of the turbines, the company said.
Dominion said the construction and operations plan for the project is on schedule to be submitted to BOEM later this year.