Denmark-based Ramboll has been chosen by the US energy company Dominion Energy to support development and engineering aspects of the Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind (CVOW) project, which will become the largest offshore wind farm in the United States and one of the largest in the world.
The new 2.6 GW is expected to start supplying the grid by end–2026, which will make a significant contribution to the state of Virginia's target of 30 % renewable electricity by 2030. Ramboll will as the Owner’s Engineer provide consultancy to Dominion Energy on all development and engineering aspects of the farm.
Ramboll was selected through a competitive process based largely on its track record of successfully completed offshore wind projects in 21 countries.
Tim Fischer, Ramboll’s global offshore wind director commented: “The project allows us to not only bring to the table our experience in project development and owner’s engineering, but also in-depth expertise in detailed engineering and design across all relevant project packages, which makes us unique in the market and provides Dominion Energy with an effective one-stop-shop solution.”
The offshore array will become the largest in the USA and underlines the country’s high ambitions in offshore wind. Although at present the USA has only established 30 MW offshore wind, compared to approx. 20 GW in Europe, there are plans for major expansions in the coming years. This project suggests that the USA is well into the process of meeting its ambition of more than 20 GW offshore wind in 2030.
On 1 January last year Ramboll acquired the US engineering company OBG (O'Brien & Gere). With a total of 2000 employees in the USA, Ramboll now believes it is better equipped to handle the tough conditions in the US offshore wind market, which is characterised by State- and Federal-specific permitting requirements, but also demanding rules towards local content, which can both best be dealt with by having the right experts in the right US States.
Dominion Energy is gearing up to complete construction on its pilot project – two 6- MW turbines to be installed this spring. At the same time, the company is also preparing to perform ocean surveys to determine the commercial project’s potential impact to the ocean and sea life, which supports development of the project’s Construction and Operations Plan for submittal to BOEM later this year.