An offshore wind farm is set to save customers billions of dollars once it's complete.
A recent update on the Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind project showed it is on track to meet its projected late 2026 completion date.
The CVOW project is nearly halfway done, and despite a planned pause "to safeguard the endangered North Atlantic right whale during its migration period through the project area," the project is on time and on budget, Electrek reported.
Along with the pause in work to protect the whale, the project also has designated "protected species observers" to watch for "marine mammals and sea turtles and will stop operations if species are within exclusion zones," according to the project's website. Other environmental protections are also in place, like environmental training for employees and underwater sound monitoring.
Once completed, the CVOW "will feature 176 turbines generating enough clean energy to power up to 660,000 homes. Dominion Energy expects the project to save customers $3 billion in fuel costs over the first decade of operation," per Electrek.
Wind farms are large groups of wind turbines. Turbines harness the wind to spin their blades, which power a generator to create electricity. Offshore wind farms are generally more efficient than their land counterparts, as offshore winds are faster and steadier.
The CVOW wind farm will include 176 turbines. An "average wind turbine that came online in 2020 generates enough electricity in just 46 minutes to power an average U.S. home for one month," the U.S. Geological Survey calculated.
Not only will the project provide electricity to over half a million homes, but it's also creating hundreds of jobs.
In an interview with Pew Charitable Trusts, John Larson, the director of public policy and economic development at Dominion Energy, described the monumental impact of the wind farm.
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It will support "almost 25% of our Virginia residential customers — pretty phenomenal if you think about carbon emissions, because obviously when the units are generating, there'll be no fuel needed and no emissions generated," Larson said. "So, it's the equivalent of taking about a million gasoline- or diesel-powered vehicles off the road annually."
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