Amid failing turbine components and financial challenges, Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy has discontinued its plans to build the nation’s first offshore wind-turbine blade manufacturing facility at the Port of Virginia’s Portsmouth Marine Terminal.
The $200 million project, first announced in October 2021, was expected to create 310 jobs in Portsmouth and also was viewed as a major step toward creating a U.S. offshore wind manufacturing hub in Hampton Roads. The factory was set to support Dominion Energy’s $9.8 billion Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind project 27 miles off the coast of Virginia Beach, and Siemens Gamesa had leased 80 acres at the port’s Portsmouth terminal next to 72 acres leased by Dominion for staging and preassembly of the foundations and turbines for the wind farm.
When completed, the 2.6-gigawatt, 176-turbine wind farm will power 660,000 homes, according to the Richmond-based Fortune 500 utility. Last week, Dominion passed critical hurdles to start construction as planned in the second half of 2024, with a 2026 delivery date. The first foundation posts, or monopiles, for the wind turbines began arriving at Portsmouth Marine Terminal in late October.
The Port of Virginia was notified several weeks ago that the Siemens Gamesa project was not going to proceed, and Siemens Gamesa honored the port’s termination fee.
In January 2020 Siemens Gamesa was selected as the preferred turbine supplier for the 2,640-MW Dominion Energy Virginia Offshore Wind project.
(Source: Siemens Gamesa)