Huge monopiles built for Virginia’s 2.6 GW offshore wind farm have set sail

The first eight monopiles made for the 2.6 gigawatt (GW) Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind (CVOW) project have left Germany and are headed for Portsmouth.

Rostock, Germany-based EEW SPC makes offshore wind turbine monopiles – the steel tubes driven into the seabed – and it’s going to manufacture all 176 monopiles for the CVOW project, each of which will weigh 1,538 tonnes and have a diameter of up to 9.5 meters (31 feet). 

The 83-meter (272-foot) long foundations will be sailing to Portsmouth Marine Terminal for the next couple weeks. They’ll be installed on CVOW’s offshore wind site about 27 miles (43 kilometers) off the Virginia coast. Construction is scheduled to begin next year.

CVOW, which is being developed and will be owned by electric utility Dominion Energy, will feature 176 Siemens Gamesa 14 megawatt (MW) wind turbines, three offshore substations, and new onshore transmission infrastructure. Once construction is complete in 2026, it will provide clean electricity for around 660,000 households and will support 1,100 jobs.

A CVOW pilot made up of two 6 MW wind turbines has been running onsite since October 2020. The pilot is the first offshore wind installed in US federal waters.

Two days ago, the US Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) completed CVOW’s environmental review. BOEM says it plans to issue a Record of Decision on whether to approve the project this fall.

Read more: Underwater robots have been secured for the US’s first floating offshore wind farm

Photo: EEW SPC

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