Second District Congresswoman Elaine Luria and U.S. Sens. Mark Warner and Tim Kaine are urging the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management to expedite regulatory processes for offshore wind development in Coastal Virginia.

The inaugural class of recruits in Centura College’s first-of-its-kind turbine technician program is learning the tools, terminology and climbing skills that will be essential for maintaining wind farms.

The U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) has issued its long-awaited final environmental impact study (FEIS) for the Vineyard Wind project off Massachusetts, which will be the first commercial-scale offshore wind farm in federal waters.

The Atlantic Endeavor crew transfer vessel (CTV), owned and operated by Atlantic Wind Transfers, America’s first CTV operator, has recently been delivered to support Dominion Energy’s Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind (CVOW) pilot wind farm.

New offshore wind developments are poised to help the US usher in a new era in energy — but first, they need ships. More specifically, they need massive specialized vessels capable of erecting a skyscraper-sized turbine in the open ocean. Perhaps unsurprisingly, these are hard to come by.

The 188 giant wind turbines that Dominion Energy plans to plant 27 miles off the Virginia Beach shore will be the utility’s biggest project since its nuclear plants went online in the 1970s — but all that energy won’t do much good if it doesn’t reach customers, says Kevin Curtis, the company’s vice president-electric transmission.

More than 40 GW of offshore wind capacity is expected to be installed off the U.S. East Coast by 2035 and the industry could invest USD 140 billion to establish and build out its supply chain, install equipment, and operate the wind farms.

To meet expected growth, the U.S. market will require a large amount of wind farm support vessels of various types, with the current fixed-bottom wind turbine installation fleet non-existent, and the foreign-flagged vessels not an option, for the most part. Development of ports required to support the offshore wind construction will need to pick up, too.

The fledgling US offshore wind industry is finally poised to become a commercial reality off the northeast and mid-Atlantic coasts within the next five years, thanks to robust commitments to buy its power from seven coastal states, new support from the Biden administration, and billions of dollars in investment by an industry that sees a huge market for electric power in Eastern states.