Dominion Resources received one of  DOE’s technology grants, and it is working with Keystone and other companies to design a demonstration project of up to two, 6 MW turbines off Virginia’s coast, says Karl Neddenien, a spokesman for Dominion.
The company plans to use information it gathers in the demonstration project in its much large commercial scale project off the coast of Virginia.

In September, Dominion won the second-ever federal offshore wind lease sale. On Oct. 11 , Dominion signed a lease with the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management for an 112,800 acres parcel off Virginia’s coast where the company says it can build a wind farm capable of producing up to  2,000 megawatts of electricity.

In the coming months the Interior Dept. plans to hold at least three more offshore lease sales, off the coasts of Maryland, New Jersey and Massachusetts.

To make those and other offshore projects viable, Navigant says in addition to making offshore wind costs more competitive, the U.S. must improve policies and regulations to help encourage offshore wind — and it must develop infrastructure, such as purpose-built ports, vessels and electric transmission systems to serve offshore wind farms.

Neddenien of Dominion, says his company is committed to reducing costs and making offshore wind viable, and that’s achievable, he says, because every year “there’s additional information and additional technology.”