Posted on May 5, 2025
The 2.6-gigawatt Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind (CVOW), the largest project of its kind being developed in U.S. waters, is 55% complete as it navigates headwinds and moves toward an anticipated year-end 2026 completion.
“This project is consistent with the goal of securing American energy dominance and is part of our comprehensive all of the above energy strategy to affordably meet growing energy needs,” Dominion Energy CEO Bob Blue said May 1 on the company’s quarterly earnings call.
The last of three substations are set to be installed in the fall, and Siemens Gamesa is making progress on the project’s 176 wind turbines, he added. “The sections for 28 full towers have been completed with 45 additional towers currently in production. In addition, 36 nacelles are complete or awaiting final testing, and 28 blades have been fully cast.” Monopole installation reportedly started May 1.
And Charybdis, the Jones Act-compliant vessel being built to install the wind farm’s gigantic turbines, is 98% complete. Within the next four to eight weeks, the vessel is expected to make its way from a shipyard in Brownsville, Texas, to Virginia to begin turbine installation.
Blue called CVOW, which Dominion is developing with partner Stonepeak, “the fastest and most economical way to deliver almost 3 gigawatts of electricity” to support the grid, military and defense installations, data centers and other customers. When complete, CVOW will provide enough electricity to power more than 660,000 homes, according to Dominion.
The update can be considered a bright spot for an otherwise bruised U.S. offshore wind sector that continues to face headwinds. The sector has battled inflationary pressure, higher interest rates and supply chain constraints in recent years. This year, it encountered more regulatory uncertainty after President Donald Trump took office. An opponent of offshore wind, the president ordered a review—among other executive orders—that halted offshore wind permitting and leasing.
The ongoing political and regulatory uncertainty led RWE to stop offshore wind activities in the U.S. and set new criteria for investment in this country.
Equinor, which is developing the Empire Wind project offshore New York, is considering legal action after the Trump administration on April 16 ordered the company to stop construction. It said it is reviewing information suggesting the administration of former President Joe Biden “rushed through its approval without sufficient analysis.” Equinor received all regulatory approval for the project that is now about 30% complete. The company said it has invested more than $2.5 billion in the project.
During the call, an analyst asked what the company would do if the administration ordered CVOW to halt construction. Blue said the company would have to evaluate the facts and circumstances.
“If it happened, we would be very transparent in addressing them. But we don’t think it’s going to be paused for all the reasons I gave in the prepared remarks,” Blue said, adding that the project has bipartisan support. “It’s the fastest way to get 2.6 gigawatts on the grid to serve tech companies, defense and security installations, important American industries like shipbuilding. It’s employing 2,000 people. Stopping it would cause energy inflation.”
As of March 31, approximately $6.8 billion has been invested in the $10.8 billion project, Dominion Energy said. The amount includes $123 million of estimated tariff impact through June 30.
Tariffs ‘manageable’
Tariffs have been a recurring theme for energy companies during first-quarter 2025 earnings calls. Blue said the impacts Dominion has seen so far are manageable.
“We’ve worked on our supply chain for some time. … The vast majority of the materials that we procure are directly from U.S. suppliers. That is certainly true with our solar procurement. We’ve had for some time an effort to diversify our supply chain and drive supply chain resilience. A chunk of that would have come out of COVID as we started thinking about that.”
For CVOW, the impact of tariffs is related to the 25% tariff on steel, the 25% tariffs on Mexico and Canada, and the 10% non-steel tariff on the EU.
“We think about increasing inventory and ordering thresholds to address longer lead times, ensure that we have multiple sources of supply where it’s appropriate,” Blue said. “We have been placing some orders ahead of tariff effective dates to mitigate cost increases where it’s possible. So, those actions have enabled us to avoid some of the impacts. And obviously, our first objective is to avoid impact and keep costs for customers low. So, we find tariff costs generally across the business to be manageable.”
Dominion Energy reported first-quarter 2025 revenue of $4.08 billion, up from $3.63 billion a year earlier. The company affirmed its full-year 2025 operating earnings guidance range of $3.28 to $3.52 per share and other financial guidance provided during its fourth quarter 2024 earnings call.
