It's WINDSday| April 6, 2022

Celebrating the Power of Wind, Clean Energy and a Green Environment

Have you heard of Sea Jacks? It’s a 16-year-old company from Great Yarmouth, England that operates self-propelled jack-up vessels used to install and maintain offshore wind turbines and foundations. They’ve done more than 500 worldwide and now have a small office at Gather in VA Beach Town Center, presumably to help construct and maintain Dominion’s CVOW project. In fact, Sea Jacks is already providing support for the massive half-billion dollar Charybdis transport vessel Dominion is having built in Texas.

How about Avangrid Renewables? The Spanish firm, with US offices in Boston, also is starting out at Gather but will grow as it preps to develop a large wind farm off Kitty Hawk, NC. And this past week, we learned about Near Shore, a Houston-based company that supports the near and offshore communications needs of maritime clients, including for both the CVOW and Avangrid windfarms. Near Shore will be a Gather tenant too for now.

Offshore wind has also attracted big players like Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy and Orsted, which have leased space at Portsmouth Marine Terminal. Indeed, every economic development department plus the Hampton Roads Alliance are courting prospects, but Virginia Beach may be the most aggressive among the cities. For instance:

• VB City Manager Patrick Duhaney signed an MOU with the New Anglia Local Enterprise Partnership, which covers the English counties of Norfolk and Suffolk, to promote inward investment, exports, skills development, and trade relations.

• VB Economic Development will be a premier sponsor at the Wind Europe 2022 Conference taking place in Spain, in partnership with the Hampton Roads Alliance and will participate in the Global Offshore Wind conference in Manchester, England.

Expect more announcements as the months tick down toward CVOW construction off Virginia Beach in 2024.

There are at least two Chris Taylors in Virginia Beach. One of them plays major league baseball for the LA Dodgers. In fact, in 2021, the Cox High and UVA grad not only made the National League All Star team, but he hit three homers in one playoff game against the eventual World Series champion Braves.



But there’s another Chris Taylor also gaining notoriety in his hometown.

The descendant of free blacks who lived in the Kings Grant section pre-Civil War, this Chris has a business degree, is a pastor in an outreach program called “Ministry in the Marketplace,” and with his wife Kim, an exercise science and nutrition expert, owns Smoothie Stop (smoothiestopcafe.com), featuring healthy drinks with no sugar added. Today there are two locations in Virginia Beach and two in Hampton with another coming in Newport News.

And all boast WINDSday stickers. “A new industry like this will create more opportunity for our young people and build our local economy, so I’m happy to raise awareness,” says Chris Taylor, who is eyeing a run for local political office to add to an already busy schedule that includes father of two, businessman and spiritual leader. And like the Dodger Chris Taylor, civic leader Chris Taylor has energy to spare.