Business Trends ENERGY


Upwind opportunity


Virginia can be a key player in nascent industry


Although Virginia’s wind energy industry has yet to develop, “we can provide certain components, particularly foundations, at more cost-effective prices than anyone else,” says George Hagerman of Old Dominion University.


by Elizabeth Cooper A


n influx of wind turbines is planned for the U.S. East Coast, and Virginia


could be a key player in a supply chain producing these massive structures. Wind turbines already are


spinning off Rhode Island, where the 30-megawatt Block Island Wind Farm, the first U.S. off- shore wind project, has operated since 2016. Two years later, the offshore


Photo by Mark Rhodes


wind industry on the East Coast is poised to take off. Experts say that 2,000 to


3,000 wind turbines could be installed in East Coast waters during the next two decades, with the first offshore-wind projects ramping up in the Northeast. The cost to produce offshore wind power is plummeting, and many Northeastern states have set renewable energy goals that include big contributions from


that so urce. At the end of last year, agree-


ments were in place to build wind farms off the East Coast generat- ing a combined 2 gigawatts of power, with purchase agreements for another 3 gigawatts expected this year. Maryland and Mas- sachusetts already are moving ahead with their first commercial offshore wind projects, while Rhode Island has another project underway.


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