Offshore wind has the potential to be the single largest source of clean energy in Virginia, allowing the Commonwealth to quickly meet carbon reduction goals, aggressively confront the climate crisis, and at the same time create thousands of new jobs and business opportunities.
The large Virginia commercial wind energy area leased to Dominion Energy is capable of producing over 2,000 megawatts of wind energy - enough to power over 500,000 homes. Leadership from the Governor can spur Dominion to speed up its development of this resource, which has been significantly lagging in the past.
Several East Coast governors have developed offshore wind master plans, sending strong signals to the offshore wind industry that their states are open and ready for business. Virginia must do similarly in order to compete, and develop an energy plan that specifically outlines milestones and timelines for both the construction of turbines off our coast and development of our ports to support the offshore wind industry.