Dominion Virginia Power, a subsidiary of Dominion, bid US$ 1.6 million to win the lease for 112,800 acres of federal land off the coast of Virginia to develop an offshore wind turbine farm capable of generating up to 2,000MW of electricity.
The federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) conducted the auction. Eight companies, including Dominion, were approved to bid, but only two firms participated. The auction lasted six rounds. BOEM has several milestones that Dominion must meet to keep the lease with the final milestone being the submittal of a Construction and Operations Plan within five years of signing the lease. Once BOEM has the plan, it has an undetermined amount of time to perform an environmental analysis and approve the plan. Dominion expects the first turbine to be installed in about 10 years pending project approval by state regulators.
