The first offshore wind turbine blade facility in the United States will be built in Virginia, Gov. Ralph Northam said Monday.
Under an agreement with the state, Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy will lease more than 80 acres of the Portsmouth Marine Terminal and construct a facility to produce turbine blades to supply offshore wind projects in North America.
The project will cost about $200 million, which includes more than $80 million in investments for buildings and equipment at the terminal. The facility and operations and maintenance activities is expected to create 310 new jobs, 50 of which will support the Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind Project.
To secure the project, the Virginia Economic Development Partnership worked with the Port of Virginia, Dominion Energy, the city of Portsmouth, the Hampton Roads Alliance, and the General Assembly’s Major Employment and Investment (MEI) Project Approval Commission.
The state will back the project through the Virginia Public Building Authority's MEI-approved bonds of up to $17.1 million to support the infrastructure improvements and site preparation required to build out the facility.
“The commonwealth is joining these leading companies to create the most important clean-energy partnership in the United States,” Northam said in a press release.
Previously, Dominion Energy had picked Siemens Gamesa as its partner to construct an energy generation project 27 miles off the coast of Virginia Beach.
In August, the Port of Virginia leased out part of the terminal to Dominion Energy. Under that agreement, Dominion will use 72 acres of the terminal as a staging area for the foundations and wind turbines that will be installed off the coast.
In July, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management began an
The Virginia wind project is expected to produce more than 2,600 megawatts of clean renewable energy, which would be enough to power 660,000 homes.
“The U.S. offshore market is a critical part of our overall global strategy, with our presence in Virginia playing a crucial and central role,” Marc Becker, CEOI of the Siemens Gamesa Offshore Business Unit, said in the release. “Our investment — reaching triple-digit millions of U.S. dollars — would be energized by the strong collaboration with Dominion Energy and support of Virginia’s legislature and authorities.”
