East Coast Offshore Wind Industry Poised for Takeoff

The global appetite for clean energy has never been higher, with businesses, individuals, and nations working to decrease their carbon emissions. Technological advancements in generating and storing the energy created by clean sources like wind and solar, along with backing from stakeholders all the way up to the White House, have the East Coast of the United States poised to benefit.

The global market for offshore wind has grown by an average of 24% each year since 2013, according to analysis from renewable energy consultants BVG Associates LLC. Companies installed more than 5 GW of offshore wind power around the world in 2020, and more than 300 GW is forecast to be installed by 2030. The Biden administration has called for the U.S. deployment of 30 GW by that date.

Several East Coast projects are in various stages of development to help meet those goals. Jeff Tingley, head of strategy and market development at energy consultancy Xodus Group, expects as many as 300 turbines to be commissioned each year by 2027, including up to 180 at Richmond-based Dominion Energy Virginia’s Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind Project (CVOW), which will feature a planned 180 14 MW turbines, more than 800 feet tall with 350-foot blades, capable of supplying power for up to 660,000 homes.

The massive scale of those turbines illustrates the opportunity available to companies as the industry expands. Offshore turbines are much larger than their onshore counterparts. Doubling the length of a blade quadruples the wind-catching surface area — and the energy that can be collected.

These enormous turbines are manufactured in as few pieces as possible to keep them strong and durable, but that also means that turbine blades the length of a football field must be transported in one piece. At these sizes, trucks and trains can’t handle the equipment, so major components must be manufactured near the water and moved by ship. “The bigger the piece, the closer it has to be to the quayside,” Tingley said. This includes turbine blades, the machinery-housing nacelles, tower sections, foundations, and even large spools of cable.

Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind Pilot Project

Virginia's Offshore Opportunity

Virginia is poised to leverage its prime location to lead the way in the U.S. offshore wind industry. An enormous reminder of that is currently under construction in the form of the $500M Charybdis — a ship commissioned by Dominion Energy, Inc., based out of Hampton Roads, and expected to be ready in 2023. The Charybdis can elevate itself out of the water on four legs, transforming into a heavy-duty crane capable of moving the largest, heaviest turbine parts.

Danish offshore wind powerhouse Ørsted will charter the Charybdis to help build the Revolution Wind and Sunrise Wind projects, serving Connecticut, New York, and Rhode Island. Ørsted partnered with Dominion in its first foray into the offshore wind industry in 2020, building two 600-foot offshore turbines off Virginia Beach as a pilot project — the first turbines deployed in U.S. federal waters. Dominion is getting pieces into position for CVOW, expected to be constructed from 2024–2026.

Experts say a number of factors — including geography, a long maritime history, existing port infrastructure, and government collaboration — give Virginia an ideal foundation for fostering a growing offshore wind industry that serves the entire East Coast of the United States.

“We’ve got a lot of great benefits with The Port of Virginia: no overhead restrictions, wide, deep channels, and marine terminals that are available for supporting the supply chain of offshore wind,” said John Larson, director of public policy and economic development at Dominion.

Ørsted and Dominion have both agreed to lease land at the Portsmouth Marine Terminal, but there are other large, appealing sites in the area, Tingley said. He singled out Lambert’s Point, across the Elizabeth River from Portsmouth, and Cape Charles on the Eastern Shore, at the northern mouth of the Chesapeake Bay, as particularly attractive due to surrounding infrastructure — Lambert’s Point is located on 117 acres next to a railyard and convenient to interstate highways, and both sites offer significant amounts of land adjacent to the deep water that’s necessary for large ships, convenient to the open ocean.

“There are many ports [elsewhere on the East Coast] that have height restrictions or are too far away,” said Tingley. “Hampton Roads has many of the physical assets necessary to be a significant contributor to the growth of offshore wind.”

Growth Across Industries

Offshore projects may seem expensive at first, but costs are likely to come down as the industry grows. Development will take many forms, including outside investment or attracting industry-adjacent companies like Rose Holm, a Danish fastener manufacturer that specializes in hardware for offshore wind turbines. Last year, the company announced plans to build its first U.S. factory in Henrico County, near Richmond.

The Virginia Offshore Wind Landing is another example of this spirit of cooperation. This shared office space was created by the Hampton Roads Alliance for organizations involved with offshore wind to network and access industry assets. Founding members include Dominion Energy and Avangrid Renewables, which is developing Vineyard Wind in Massachusetts and Kitty Hawk Offshore in North Carolina.

Offshore wind is a long-term investment — for environmental reasons, the long lifespan of a turbine, and the challenges of harnessing a new type of energy. In some cases, offshore wind isn’t just an update of the sources of electricity, but will require changes to — and therefore significant investment in — the infrastructure that distributes it, particularly grid modernization and battery storage. Virginia aims to be at the center of those investments and advancements.

“We’re trying to build a completely new industry,” Palestrant said, adding: “Offshore wind is a once-in-a-multigenerational opportunity. We need to put all our energy into it.”