Dominion on board for offshore wind in Virginia
In an interview with the Virginian-Pilot last week, Mary Doswell, an alternative energy executive for Dominion, asserted Dominion’s intentions to play a major role in developing offshore wind energy in Virginia.
‘Wind is the largest renewable resource available to Virginia and it could end up being the cheapest one of scale,’ Doswell said… If the mid-Atlantic is to derive some of its electricity from offshore wind, there are a number of ways in which Dominion might get involved, Doswell said. Most noticeably, of course, are the windmills themselves. Doswell said Dominion is well-suited to be involved in wind farms…
Once the mills catch the breeze and generate electricity, that power needs to be transmitted over the ocean to the shore. Dominion would likely have a part in that as well.
The plan to get transmission lines that would connect offshore farms to the mainline grid could go one of two ways. Say, for example, six private developers are building the farms without Dominion’s involvement. Each one would have to build its own transmission line.
‘I can’t imagine six large transmission lines underwater coming onto the coast,’ Doswell said.
Those lines would eventually connect to Dominion, which is the region’s state-approved monopoly electricity provider. So why not have those farms all connect on one transmission line running to shore and have the owners of the farms pay some sort of toll or royalty to use the lines?”
Doswell indicated that Dominion could eventually become involved through a public-private partnership in building the expensive meteorological towers that must first determine the economic and technical viability of the project before full-scale development can ensue.
Offshore wind energy represents one of Virginia’s greatest opportunities to reduce our dependence on foreign energy sources and jumpstart economic development in Virginia. Most experts agree that offshore wind could generate as much as 20% of Virginia’s electricity within the next decade. Not only would this generate thousands of jobs and promote energy independence on the generation side, it would also spur economic development and energy independence on the components side as turbine manufacturing companies locate in Hampton Roads.
