US utility Dominion Energy has signed up contractors DEME and Prysmian to a record-setting $1.9bn deal that will see the European duo install the foundations and power transmission infrastructure for the developer’s giant CVOW offshore wind project off Virginia, at present slated to be online in 2026.
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The balance of plant contract – the biggest to date in the US sector – will see DEME and Prysmian together install a project spread encompassing 176 monopiles from German steel fabricator EEW and three offshore substations, as well as all export and inter-array submarine cable systems linked to the 2.6GW array, which will supply electricity to 660,000 homes in the commonwealth once to full power.
Joshua Bennett, Dominion Energy vice president of offshore wind, said: “We look forward to working with [DEME Offshore, Prysmian and EEW] to advance offshore wind off the coast of Virginia as we lead the commonwealth’s clean-energy transition.”
DEME Group CEO Luc Vandenbulcke, said: “We are extremely proud to be playing such a significant role in this dynamic and growing US market and seeing our efforts bring clean energy to American households.”
DEME has landed a series of big-ticket construction jobs in the rapidly emerging US Atlantic wind play, including installation work at the 800MW Vineyard Wind 1 off Massachusetts, the country’s first utility-scale development, and the 132MW South Fork, off Long Island, New York, both expected online in 2023.
Prysmian Group CEO Valerio Battista said: “We consider US central in our growth strategy and the renewed Biden administration’s strong commitment on the development of infrastructure supporting the energy transition is something really positive.
“Following the award of the Vineyard submarine offshore project and the SOO Green HVDC link, the Dominion Energy project represents a further confirmation of our major role in helping our customers meet their goals.”
Prysmian Group will provide three 220kV high voltage alternating current export cables, totalling some 560km in length, as well as 320km of 66kV inter-array lines. The cabling will be manufactured in its plants in Arco Felice, Italy, and Pikkala, Finland, while the inter-array cables will come out its facility in Nordenham, Germany facilities, and installed with its new cable-lay vessel, the Leonardo da Vinci.
EEW – which previously delivered two monopiles for the 12MW CVOW pilot in April 2020, the first foundations to be installed in federal US waters – is set to process more than 200,000 tons of steel for the CVOW installation, with fabrication out of its Rostock, Germany factory slated to begin in spring 2023.
“With the construction of CVOW, Dominion is getting closer to its own voluntary goal of being carbon neutral, in terms of power generation, by 2050, and we are pleased that we can also do our part,” said Heiko Mützelburg, CEOof EEW.
The CVOW project, located 27 miles (43km) off the coast of Virginia Beach, will be central to Virginia’s energy transition plans, which target carbon neutrality by 2045.
Virginia is placing a large bet on offshore wind for its energy transition and the associated economic development the sector will bring, such as the recent announcement by Siemens Gamesa that it would be building a $200m blade factory in the Port of Virginia, initially to supply the CVOW project, where it has preferred supplier status as turbine OEM.
The Port of Virginia will also stage and pre-assemble turbine foundations for CVOW at its Portsmouth Marine Terminal, starting in 2024.
The US offshore wind industry is forecast to grow into a $109bn market for supply chain companies in the coming decade – far larger than was being forecast before the Biden administration set out the “national goal” earlier this year of having 30GW of plant operating at sea by 2030, according to recent calculations from sector think-tank the Special Initiative on Offshore Wind.
