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Dominion Says New Ship Has Vital Role in Biden Wind-Energy Plan

June 2, 2021 — A Dominion Energy Inc. ship being built to install offshore wind farms will be the first to comply with a U.S. domestic transport mandate, with the power company expecting the vessel to play a vital role in the nation’s clean-energy plans.

The ship is expected to be sea-ready by late 2023 and will adhere to the Jones Act, a century-old law that goods transported between U.S. ports be carried on domestically built and crewed ships. Ørsted and Eversource will charter the $500 million vessel to build two offshore wind farms that will power nearly a million homes in Rhode Island, Connecticut and New York, according to a statement on Tuesday.

The companies expect it to help expedite installation of wind farms in U.S. waters, which would advance President Biden’s goal for 30 gigawatts of offshore wind power by 2030. Without a Jones Act-compliant vessel, installing an offshore wind farm requires staging the materials in Canada or using feeder ships that bring the materials out to the installation vessel, said Dominion spokesman Jeremy Slayton. Both methods are slower and more expensive.

Read the full story at Bloomberg

New offshore wind project will be the biggest in the U.S.

November 29, 2019 — When Captain Bartholomew Gosnold sailed his ship Godspeed from London to the New World in 1607, the trip would have taken two months with favorable winds. Instead, the journey took 144 days, a bleak beginning for the ill-fated settlement of Jamestown, Va., the first permanent English settlement in America. Gosnold died only four months after making landfall, and the colony soon spiraled into death and cannibalism.

The importance of harnessing wind has not been lost on Virginia, and a little more than 300 years later, it is seen as a way to propel the state into a future of clean energy. 

Dominion Energy has proposed the largest offshore wind project in the U.S., a plan that will have more than 220 giant wind turbines spinning off the coast of Virginia Beach.

“We’re committed to reducing our carbon emissions by 55 percent by 2030,” Dominion Energy spokesman Jeremy Slayton tells Changing America. “Our customers are telling us they want more solar and wind, and more reliable electric service. We’re responding by investing in renewables and a transformed energy grid. It will help them reduce their carbon footprint, give them more control over their energy usage and bills, and reduce the quantity and duration of outages,” says Slayton.

Read the full story at The Hill