April 16, 2024 — The ship Dominion Energy needs to install 176 giant wind turbines in the Atlantic Ocean, 27 miles off the Virginia Beach Oceanfront, has been launched, as the utility has won its 11th and final federal permit for the $9 billion project.
The ship, called Charybdis, is a U.S. flag vessel.
That means Dominion can stage all of the components for the more than 800-foot-tall turbines in Virginia port facilities — it had to shuttle these from Halifax, Nova Scotia, for the first two, smaller turbines it installed on its ocean lease.
The only ship Dominion could find to do the work was registered in Luxembourg, and U.S. law bars foreign flag ships from moving cargo between U.S. points.