Dominion Energy’s wind farm off the Virginia Beach coast sent its first batch of power to the regional electric grid on Monday, the company confirmed.
The $11 billion Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind project, or CVOW, stretches from about 27 to 44 miles off the Oceanfront and will be the nation’s largest commercial offshore wind farm.
The first fully completed turbine began spinning this week, generating just under 15 megawatts of power, enough to cover about 3,675 homes. The energy moves through undersea cables that connect with onshore transmission infrastructure at State Military Reservation in Virginia Beach.
“This marks another major milestone for the project, adding much-needed electricity to help serve the fastest-growing power demand in the country,” spokesperson Jeremy Slayton said in an email.
The project will continue adding power to the grid as more turbines are installed over the next year, he said.
“CVOW is critical to Virginia’s all-of-the-above energy strategy to meet the increasing power needs of a growing economy and population, the largest data center market in the world, and among the largest military installations and defense manufacturers in the country,” Slayton wrote.
Dominion is more than 70% done constructing the project and plans to finish by early next year, with a total of 176 turbines producing up to 2.6 gigawatts of electricity. That’s enough to power about 660,000 homes.
The milestone comes months after President Donald Trump tried to block the project from moving forward.
Shortly before Christmas, the U.S. Interior Department issued a stop-work order for CVOW and four other offshore wind farms along the East Coast, citing unspecified national security concerns.
Dominion sued the government, and in January, a federal judge in Norfolk ruled the company could resume construction while the lawsuit proceeds.
The monthlong pause on construction cost Dominion almost $230 million from equipment storage, contractual penalties, an idle workforce and delays in using time-sensitive vessels.
CVOW has been in the works for more than a decade. Dominion acquired a federal lease for the site in 2013 for $1.7 million.
Two pilot turbines went up in 2020 to help the company learn about how to install and maintain the structures. Those have been producing energy for several years, but only about half as much as each new, larger turbine.
After a lengthy permitting process, the company started building the commercial project in 2024.
Each turbine consists of a steel monopile foundation that stretches more than 200 feet underwater to the ocean floor, topped with a bright yellow transition piece that connects it to the actual turbine blade.
All monopiles have been installed, as well as 155 transition pieces, according to the utility. Several more turbines will power up soon.
The same day Dominion’s first turbine started running, Trump announced another blow to the wider offshore wind industry. The federal government plans to pay a French company $1 billion to walk away from two previously granted offshore wind leases off North Carolina and New York.
