Dominion Virginia Power wins offshore wind auction

US-based Dominion Virginia Power has won a bid in a federal auction to lease 112,800 acres of land to develop an offshore wind turbine farm off the Virginia coast.

The company’s $1.6m bid topped over Apex Virginia Offshore Wind in the auction, which was conducted by the U.S. Department of Interior’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) on 4 September 2013.

The offshore wind farm has capacity to generate up to 2,000MW of electricity, which is expected to generate enough energy to power over 700,000 homes.

Dominion Virginia Power senior vice president-alternative energy solutions Mary Doswell said, "Offshore wind has the potential to provide the largest, scalable renewable resource for Virginia if it can be achieved at reasonable cost to customers.

"We will now proceed with the BOEM timetable for development of the commercial wind energy area while advancing our research proposal and looking for ways to lower the cost of bringing offshore wind generation to customers." Doswell added.

Dominion Virginia Power expects to have the first turbine installed in about ten years should it secures all the necessary approvals from the state regulators.

Apart from Dominion and Apex, six other companies including Energy Management, EDF Renewable Development, Fisherman’s Energy, Iberdrola Renewables, Sea Breeze Energy and Orisol Energy, were approved to bid in the auction.

The Virginia auction is the country’s second competitive offshore wind lease sale with first being the July 31 auction of 164,750 acres offshore Rhode Island and Massachusetts that was won by Deepwater Wind New England.