Dominion Energy’s 2.6GW Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind (CVOW) array, the nation's largest, continued its march towards installation with beginning of water commissioning of its main construction vessel, the $625m Charybdis following last week's final federal approval from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
Dominion announced Tuesday that Charybdis, the US’ first and so far, only Jones Act-compliant offshore wind turbine installation vessel (WTIV), under construction by Singapore’s Seatrium at its Brownsville, Texas, shipyard, was “successfully launched from land to water”, marking completion of the vessel’s hull and commissioning of its four jack-up legs.
“Charybdis is vital not only to CVOW, but also to the growth of the offshore wind industry along the US East Coast and is key to the continued development of a domestic supply chain by providing a homegrown solution for the installation of offshore wind turbines,” said Bob Blue, Dominion Energy CEO.
As the Jones Act bans foreign-flagged vessels from calling in at consecutive US ports or points on the outer continental shelf, including turbine sites, the nation’s first two offshore wind farms under construction, the 800MW Vineyard Wind and 132MW South Fork, are using US flagged feeder barges to deliver components to the installation vessels parked at sea.
Despite the complex logistics of feedering, Recharge is not aware of any plans for additional domestic construction of WTIV due to the high costs and lengthy timelines of US shipbuilding compared to global norms.
The 472-foot (144-metre) Charybdis has been under development since it was
announced in 2020 and is so far
eight months behind schedule and 25% over budget, according to Dominion.
The WTIV’s first planned deployment for the 704MW Revolution Wind project to Connecticut and Rhode Island was cancelled due to delays.
Dominion spokesperson Jeremy Slayton confirmed to Recharge “there is no change to our expected delivery timeframe of late 2024 or early 2025”, in time for installation of the project's 176 Siemens Gamesa 14MW turbines. The project is slated for completion by the end of 2026, when it will power some 660,000 homes in the Mid-Atlantic state.
EPA approval
The EPA also issued its air quality permit for the array, the final federal approval needed that enables Dominion's contractors to begin construction activities as soon as next month.
German steel fabricator EEW last year delivered the first batch of the project’s monopiles to the staging port at Portsmouth Marine Terminal (PMT), while Belgian marine contractor Deme has confirmed that its Orion heavy lift vessel is en route to Virginia for CVOW’s foundation installation set to begin next month.
Along with being the nation's largest, CVOW stands out as the only offshore wind array
being developed by a regulated utility as a conventional power project under strict oversight of Virginia utility regulators and with guaranteed return on investment.
It is also in the small club of US projects that remain on budget, currently estimated at $9.8bn, despite years of high inflation and interest rates that have hammered the American sector, resulting in
cancellation of half of previously contracted developments and a sharp hike in offtake prices in recently awarded arrays.
Dominion has entered into an agreement with US-based infrastructure investment firm Stonepeak for sale of 50% stake in the project, subject to regulatory approvals and expected to be completed by the end of this year.
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