Siemens Gamesa is poised to grab the biggest turbine deal in US offshore wind to date after being lined up to supply the 2.6GW Dominion Energy Virginia Offshore Wind project.
The Spanish-German OEM was named preferred supplier to the project with turbines of a model and power yet to be finalised.
The Dominion project is by some distance the largest yet planned in US waters – and at a cost of $7.8bn the most expensive.
Markus Tacke, Siemens Gamesa CEO, said: “Signing this preferred supplier agreement with Dominion Energy attests to the enormously exciting growth taking place in the US offshore wind industry and across the globe.”
Completion of installation is seen by the end of 2026. The deal – which includes a long-term service agreement – is subject to a final investment decision by the Virginia utility and various approvals.
Dominion told Recharge in November it was mulling turbines between 8MW and 12MW for deployment at the project, which is expected to power 650,000 homes.
Gunnar Herzig, managing director of industry advocacy group World Forum Offshore Wind told Recharge: “This record-breaking agreement again underlines the enormous potential of the dynamically growing US offshore wind market. We expect to see more announcements of this calibre from the US East and West coasts over the next months and years.”
The preferred supplier deal is the latest – and largest – round in a three-way battle for the ever-larger projects seen in US offshore wind between turbine heavyweights Siemens Gamesa, MHI Vestas and GE Renewable Energy.
GE in September won a preferred supplier deal from Orsted to supply 12MW Haliade-X turbines for the 1.1GW Ocean Wind off New Jersey and 120MW Skipjack array facing Delaware.
In July, Siemens Gamesa scored a market breakthrough with 1.71GW of conditional orders from Orsted and its joint-venture partner Eversource for three projects: 880MW Sunrise Wind, 700MW Revolution Wind and the 130 South Fork array – all to be built in a zone off Rhode Island and Massachusetts.
Vineyard Wind earlier tapped MHI Vestas to supply 84 V164-9.5 turbines for its high-profile 800MW project, the nation’s first at utility-scale.
The Virginia preferred supplier deal builds on the 12MW Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind pilot, which Dominion is currently building with two Siemens Gamesa 6MW units.
Globally, the latest preferred supplier deal is second only to the 3.6GW mega-deal secured by GE Renewable Energy for the Dogger Bank project in in the UK.
That means that while the US group triumphed in the waters off eastern England – home to Siemens Gamesa's Hull offshore wind factory – the European player has now prevailed in GE's American backyard.