The turbines off Virginia Beach are multiplying. Dominion Energy’s Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind project, the largest of its kind in the country, has pushed past the halfway mark on installation and is on track to set all 176 of its foundations and turbines through the back half of 2026. First power already reached the grid this spring. What’s left is mostly a question of weather windows and vessel time.
CVOW sits 27 to 44 miles offshore, far enough out that the machines drop below the horizon from the beach. Each Siemens Gamesa turbine is rated at 14.7 megawatts. Together the array carries a nameplate capacity of 2.6 gigawatts, and Dominion expects it to produce about 9.5 million megawatt-hours a year once every unit is turning, enough to cover roughly 660,000 homes.
What sets the Virginia offshore wind project apart
Most US offshore wind has gone up off New England and New York. CVOW pushed the work south, into different logistics and a longer sail from port. Dominion is installing the turbines with Charybdis, the first US-built, Jones Act-compliant offshore wind installation vessel, which sidesteps the chartering bottleneck that has slowed rival projects. The roughly $11 billion budget makes it one of the largest single energy builds underway anywhere in the US.
Why a completed CVOW changes the conversation
2026 is turning into the year US offshore wind stops being a demonstration and starts being a fleet. Vineyard Wind finished its turbines this spring. Revolution Wind began feeding the New England grid. CVOW is the biggest piece by far. If Dominion lands the remaining turbines on schedule, lenders and regulators finally get something they’ve lacked: a completed, utility-owned offshore project at full commercial scale they can point to. That matters more than any single ribbon-cutting. It’s the difference between arguing over hypotheticals and arguing over a thing that exists. Exchange has tracked the wider push toward cleaner power on projects like Newark Airport’s solar expansion and Brooklyn’s 1 Java Street geothermal building.
The economics of US offshore wind aren’t settled, and the politics have been rough. A finished CVOW won’t resolve either fight. But by this time next year, the question won’t be whether the country can build offshore wind at scale. It’ll be what the power costs. (Source: Utility Dive; Dominion Energy.)