Construction of the biggest offshore wind farm being built off the US – in jeopardy of being shelved after state-imposed power production guarantees were argued to have rendered the giant 2.6GW array “untenable” – could be rescued by deal reached Friday by the project’s developer and a consortium of its stakeholders.

Dominion Energy, developer of the Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind (CVOW) project, reached a settlement agreement with the state attorney general’s office, Walmart, social advocacy group Appalachian Voices, and environmental organisation Sierra Club, to take on billions of dollars more in risk in exchange for the removal of cost recovery terms set out by Virginia’s State Corporation Commission (SCC).