Dominion Energy has secured the rights to another offshore wind lease off the coast of Virginia Beach.
The company bid $17.7 million for the 176,505 acres. Once completed, the area could support between 2.1 gigawatts and 4.0 gigawatts of offshore wind energy generation, according to the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management.
“Offshore wind is critical to our all-of-the-above approach to meet the unprecedented growth of our customer electric demand over the next decade,” Robert Blue, president and chief executive officer of Dominion Energy, said in a statement. “Winning this lease area gives us another low-cost option to meet that growing demand while providing our customers with reliable, affordable and increasing clean energy.”
Dominion does not have an estimated timeline or cost estimate for the project. This most recent lease joins two others in the pipeline for Dominion Energy. The energy provider has already begun Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind, slated to be completed in 2026, and took over the lease for Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind South, previously known as the Kitty Hawk North offshore wind project.
In May, construction began on the large-scale wind turbine project off the Virginia Beach coast. The planned 176-turbine, $9.8 billion project is expected to provide enough energy to power up to 660,000 homes by the end of 2026. It was the fifth commercial offshore wind project approved by the Biden administration, and the Department of the Interior recently announced a schedule of up to 12 additional lease sales through 2028.
Dominion reported Wednesday that 54 monopiles, steel tubes used as the turbines’ foundations, have been installed so far.
Eliza Noe, eliza.noe@virginiamedia.com
