Dominion offers Virginia Beach $19 million for offshore wind transmission easements - The Virginian-Pilot
Dominion offers Virginia Beach $19 million for offshore wind transmission easements - The Virginian-Pilot
VIRGINIA BEACH — Dominion Energy wants to pay Virginia Beach $19 million for roughly 4 miles of city easements to transmit energy from its offshore wind project. The power company has also agreed to provide $1.14 million to replace trees that will be razed to make room for the transmission lines and power poles.
Director of Public Works LJ Hansen briefed the City Council on the transmission easement proposal Tuesday.
The Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind farm will be 27 miles off the coast of Virginia Beach and will include 176 wind turbines. It will generate energy to power up to 660,000 homes, according to Dominion.
Offshore construction is scheduled to begin next year.
The onshore transmission route was chosen after Dominion collected public feedback in 2021. It was approved by the State Corporation Commission in 2022.
Undersea cables will deliver the wind energy onshore at State Military Reservation in Virginia Beach. The cables will continue underground to Naval Air Station Oceana.
From there, above-ground concrete monopoles and power lines will continue toward Dam Neck Road, connecting with an existing transmission right-of-way near the Castleton neighborhood, according to the city.
The proposed route continues west, overlapping the former Southeastern Parkway and Greenbelt roadway project until just past Princess Anne Road. It then moves southwest, crossing Salem Road and the Intracoastal Waterway in Chesapeake. The route turns south toward Battlefield Golf Course before heading west to Dominion’s existing Fentress Substation in Chesapeake.
Approximately 38 acres of tree canopy in Virginia Beach would be razed to make way for the project.
The city is working with Dominion to retain rights in the easement areas for trails, utilities, roadways and stormwater ponds, Hansen said.
Councilwoman Barbara Henley requested city staff try to plant new trees near where they were removed.
“It would be good if they could be replaced in the general area,” Henley said.
The sale of the easements will require a supermajority vote, Hansen said.
A public hearing will be held Oct. 3, and council will vote Oct. 17.
The city also approved a conditional use permit Tuesday sought by a state senator’s company to turn a vacant lot near Naval Air Station Oceana into a temporary laydown area for the wind farm project.
The Virginia Beach Planning Commission unanimously recommended approval last month of the application from London Bridge Development LLC, owned by Sen. Bill DeSteph. Three council members abstained from a vote. Councilman Chris Taylor said he had unanswered questions about the city’s sale of the property this year to DeSteph.
Stacy Parker, 757-222-5125, stacy.parker@pilotonline.com
Related Knowledge Center: Offshore wind energy
Over the next decade, U.S. offshore wind power is expected to grow from a single 30-megawatt wind farm off Rhode Island to more than 2,000 MW of capacity along the Atlantic Seaboard. There are contracts for wind power off the coasts of Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, Maryland, New Jersey, Rhode Island, and Virginia.
The National Renewable Energy Laboratory has estimated the United States has over 4,000 gigawatts (GW) of offshore wind potential, enough to power the country four times over.
The growth in part being spurred by state solicitations, including in New York, where then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) set a commitment of 9,000 MW of offshore wind by 2035, and in Connecticut, where in June 2021, Gov. Ned Lamont (D) signed legislation authorizing the construction of 2,000 MW of offshore wind by 2030.
The offshore development is also being driven by an investment tax credit set to end in December 2019 and is equal to 12 percent of expenditures. U.S. Sens. Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Tom Carper (D-Del.) have introduced a bill to extend the tax credit for up to eight years.
The Interior Department has held eight competitive lease sales that resulted in 15 offshore wind leases over 1.7 million acres that has the potential for 21 GW of capacity. In February 2022, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management completed a bidding process that realized $4.37 billion for 488,000 acres across six lease areas in federal waters off New York and New Jersey.
Projects have also been proposed off the Southeast coast, off California and Hawaii, and for the Great Lakes.