President Donald Trump has long decried the use of wind power. But billions of dollars have and will flow through Virginia as public-private partnerships help create the nation’s largest offshore wind farm off the coast of Virginia Beach.
“So, we’re going to try and have a policy where no windmills are being built,” President Donald Trump said in early January. He compared the towering power generation structures to garbage pieces of paper and has since signed an executive order which temporarily blocks future leasing and permitting of new wind projects while the administration reviews their fiscal and environmental impact.
Weeks later Republican Congresswoman Jen Kiggans defended local investments that have grown around the massive Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind, or CVOW, project off the coast of her Virginia Beach district.
“The combination of federal programs, clean energy tax credits, and clean energy investment will add $37 billion to the Commonwealth’s economy by 2035,” Kiggans told Congress.
CVOW is massive, or it will be. According to Dominion Energy, the company behind the project, it’s about 50 percent complete. Approved by President Joe Biden in 2023, once finished it aims to produce 2,600 megawatts of wind power, enough to power over 660,000 homes.
Planning for the project started years ago as part of the Virginia Clean Economy Act. Chesapeake Delegate Cliff Hayes helped author the CVOW section of the bill. He said the project was designed with the Commonwealth’s future housing and data center demand in mind.
“As a society, it’s going to take diverse power and energy in order for these things to happen.” Hayes told Radio IQ.
There’s also the downstream impact of the project. America’s fledgling offshore wind economy started with a reliance on European manufacturing and labor. But efforts under Biden saw job training, Global Wind Licensure training in particular, come back home. About 250 miles west of CVOW, Martinsville’s New College Institute began GWL training in 2022.
Delegate Michael Feggans, another official from Virginia Beach, is looking to expand training opportunities with new legislation this year.
“I would hope President Trump will see the job growth we have and the opportunities to grow our economy and not try and stifle innovation,” Feggans told Radio IQ.
His bill has survived so far, getting off the House floor last week and now on its way to the Senate.
And the vote was bipartisan, in part because Republican Del. Rob Bloxom’s Eastern Shore district also touches the CVOW project. But Republican Delegate Wren Williams, whose district includes Martinsville, offered a supportive early vote as well.
“If that is the current atmosphere, environment, then why not take advantage of that in our communities?” Williams said in an interview with Radio IQ. But this bipartisan agreement on the future of wind is far from solid - locally or nationally.
Williams welcomed investment in his district, but that doesn’t mean he supports expanding offshore wind beyond CVOW.
And while Trump’s executive order isn’t likely to impact the current project, Pasha Feinberg with the Ocean Conservancy said it creates uncertainty for future offshore leases like a second Dominion project planned for off the coast of North Carolina.
“The Coastal Offshore Virginia Wind project, which is fully permitted and already under construction, is not stopped by this executive order,” Feinberg said. “But nothing is guaranteed because there's a lot to be determined based on how this is implemented by the Department of Interior and Department of Justice”
Still, CVOW is on track to be finished in 2026, and perhaps its success may sway Trump.
David Holt is the president of the Consumer Energy Alliance. He said Trump is likely putting everything on the cutting table, including the Clean Energy Credits Kiggans defended. But the new administration, including former North Dakota governor Doug Burgum as Trump’s Secretary of Interior, could create stable footing for the rapidly growing alternative energy industry.
“Policies that ensure business growth in these sectors that have obviously seen a lot of investment, have a lot of gigawatts that come online, wind and solar,” Holt told Radio IQ. “And the bottom line is we’re going to need more gigawatts of electricity regardless of source.”
Notably North Dakota has wind farms, but Burgum has not been their biggest fan. Whether or not Virginia’s coast will host more offshore wind may be a question for 2028 or beyond.
This report, provided by Virginia Public Radio, was made possible with support from the Virginia Education Association.
