Frequently Asked Questions

The CVOW commercial project is scheduled to complete construction in late 2026. Once fully constructed, the project will generate up to 9.5 million megawatt-hours per year of clean, renewable offshore wind energy— enough to power up to 660,000 homes.

We will install 176 14.7-megawatt Siemens Gamesa turbines, which will create enough clean, renewable energy to power up to 660,000 homes.

The project represents an investment of $9.8 billion. With the commercial-scale project now approved by the Virginia State Corporation Commission, we expect the typical residential customer using 1,000 kilowatt-hours of electricity a month will see a net average monthly bill impact of less than $4 over the life of the project, although this figure will initially be less and will vary from year to year.

Development of the Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind (CVOW) project remains on time and on budget. Our practice on major projects is to provide cost certainty before we file for review and approval with the State Corporation Commission. For CVOW, we negotiated fixed-price contracts with our major offshore wind suppliers and locked in manufacturing slots before the supply chain constraints emerged that have impacted other offshore wind projects. At this point, more than 90% of costs are fixed, and major offshore equipment is in an advanced stage of fabrication which provides confidence in the cost for CVOW.

For the CVOW pilot project, Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy provides offshore wind technicians to maintain the turbines. For the next phase of the CVOW project, Dominion Energy and Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy have entered into an agreement and will share responsibilities for hiring and training offshore wind technicians to maintain the turbines. We anticipate approximately 80 full-time employees will be engaged in the operation of CVOW when construction is completed in 2026.

The design basis for the pilot turbines is a Category 2 hurricane, which has wind speeds between 96 and 110 miles per hour. In fact, the two turbines currently operational are designed to withstand wind gusts up to 157 miles per hour and sustained wind gusts of 112 miles per hour, in excess of any recorded storms in the project area.

We have all the federal, state and local approvals needed for CVOW construction. Those permits are available under the Resources section at coastalvawind.com.

BOEM acts as a coordinating agency to ensure a thorough and rigorous review of CVOW to complete the analysis required under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). In fact, more than two dozen studies have been completed and submitted as part of the NEPA review. The review of the COP incorporates and encourages extensive stakeholder participation, including the relevant federal, state and local agencies and affected Native American tribes during the review process.

The National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) process included a thorough environmental analysis of the CVOW project across a dozen federal agencies, as well as extensive engagement with Tribes, environmental and fisheries groups, and community members. In addition, we worked with state agencies and localities to carefully analyze potential impacts to the land, air and water quality, wildlife and other resources.