As the heart of the mid-Atlantic, Hampton Roads has key advantages for establishing offshore wind as a major sector, an economic development official said.
U.S. offshore wind represents a $109 billion revenue opportunity for businesses in the supply chain over the next decade, according to a 2021 report by the Special Initiative on Offshore Wind.
“We really have a generational opportunity to grow the economy of Virginia,” Matt Smith, the director of energy and water technology for Hampton Roads Alliance, said about that opportunity.
And the 2022-2024 state biennium budget allocated $2.5 million for small and medium-sized local businesses to enter the offshore wind industry, he said. A grant program related to that is expected to get up and running later this year.
Leaders in the offshore wind industry provided updates on local wind farm projects in a webinar hosted by RVA757 Connects on June 7. The discussion focused on Dominion Energy’s Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind Project and Avangrid Renewables’ Kitty Hawk wind project.
Former Gov. Ralph Northam signed the Virginia Clean Economy Act into law in 2020, which cleared the way for the construction of the new offshore wind farms. The act requires 40% of electricity in the state be produced from renewable energy sources by 2030, and 100% from carbon-free sources by 2050.
Dominion Energy has had two pilot turbines in use since October 2020, which are capable of powering about 3,000 homes, said Josh Bennett, Dominion Energy’s vice president of offshore wind.
His presentation noted the turbines are the first offshore wind project installed in federal waters. Full construction, which will include 176 wind turbines generating power, is expected to be completed by the end of 2026.
The pilot turbines have been successful so far, Bennett said.
“The availability of those turbines is at 95% availability, which means that they’re reliable,” he said. “And that’s one of the big questions, which is, ‘Can you put something far out there in the salt and wind environment and it will be reliable?’ And they are doing quite well.”
Dominion Energy’s project is located 27 miles from Virginia Beach and is estimated to increase job growth, Smith said, most of which will be in Hampton Roads.
“The bigger goal for us as an economic development organization and in supporting the economy of Virginia is that study also found that if we could become a hub for offshore wind, we would support over 5,000 direct and indirect jobs in Virginia,” he said.
Avangrid Renewables is also working toward the goal of making the region a hub for offshore wind energy. The company has proposed project developments off the coasts of Virginia and North Carolina, said Megan Higgins, the company’s senior director of offshore business development.
The Kitty Hawk wind project recently submitted construction and operations plans and the first foundations went into the water earlier in June. The project, located 36 miles from Virginia Beach, has the potential to produce enough power for over 1 million homes, she said.
The project is also expected to have a major economic impact on the Hampton Roads region over the next decade, especially for Virginia Beach, with around 800 jobs created annually upon completion. It is also expected to generate an additional $100 million in tax revenues.
“The project will result in $2 billion in direct and indirect economic impacts to the regions, and that is from the construction spent, increase in household earnings due to the jobs created by the project and an increase in the taxes paid,” she said.
Gabby Jimenez, [email protected]
