By Kennedy Maize
The nation’s largest offshore wind project, two-thirds complete off the Virginia shore with $8.2 billion spent, is facing new challenges, political and financial. In both cases, one source of the new risks is Donald Trump. 
The political risks are that the president may turn his irrational hatred of offshore wind to the Old Dominion now that the state has an incoming Democratic governor, Abigail Spanberger. Trump could tell his Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, who controls access to federal waters, to pull the plug on Richmond-based Dominion Energy’s $2.6 GW Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind (CVOW).
Dominion CEO Robert Blue at the utility’s 3rd Quarter earnings call tiptoed around the potential political minefield. Queried by reporters about the politics of wind power in the state, he said that “every statewide candidate running regardless of party supports CVOW… It’s the fastest way to get 2.6 gigawatts on the grid… we expect that to continue after the election.”
That’s the problem. Spanberger succeeded Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin, a Trump fanboy, who was limited to one term by Virginia law. Democrats also ousted Youngkin’s team of Lieutenant Gov. and Attorney General, who were not term limited.
Virginia is now Democratic blue from top to bottom. The Democrats added enough seats in the House of Delegates to give the party a super majority. The Senate seats, where Democrats also have the edge, were not up for election.
Trump is likely aware of the Virginia election results. Kamala Harris won the state in 2024 with 52% of the vote. This year, every county that voted for Trump in 2024 saw fewer votes for the statewide Republican candidates.
So far, Trump has wreaked his wind wrath on offshore projects only at states with Democrats in control. He ignored Virginia. Now he may not.
The financial challenge is also somewhat Trumpian. In its earnings call Oct. 31, Blue revealed that the cost of the 2.6 GW Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind (CVOW) project has increased from $10.9 billion to $11.2 billion. The cause of the increase? The earnings statement pointed to “the accelerated recognition of steel tariffs through the end of 2026.” In the third quarter, Dominion took a $50 million after-tax charge for costs not to be recovered from customers, per an agreement with state regulators.
CVOW is located in federal waters about 27 miles off Virginia Beach in the Hampton Roads metropolitan area of Virginia. It covers a lease area of 112,800 acres. The wind farm will consist of 176 Siemens Gamesa 14.6 MW wind turbines, each of which has 222-meter rotor diameter
The Virginia wind project has been experiencing a steady increase in its cost estimates. In February, Dominion announced a cost estimate of $10.7 billion, quickly hiked to $10.9 billion, up from $9.8 billion when Dominion took the project to the Virginia State Corporation Commission, the state’s utility rate regulator, for a green light. 
In addition to Trump’s steel tariffs, the latest cost increase reflects problems with the $715 million Jones Act-compliant turbine installation ship, the Charybdis, which Dominion commissioned. The ship, built in Brownsville, Texas, arrived at the Portsmouth Marine Terminal in September. Its task is to replace a Belgium-based heavy lift ship that is placing the 25-story tall cylindrical bases known as “monopiles” into the ocean floor.
Blue said of Charybdis, “It’s become clear that while the ship’s design and construction methods are consistent with global best practices, we didn’t properly account in our timing estimate for the risk inherent in being the first Jones Act-compliant wind turbine installation vessel to be built and regulated in the United States.”
The Merchant Marine Act of 1920, commonly known as the Jones Act, is a protectionist law that says that all goods transported by water between U.S. ports must be on U.S. built ships, owned by U.S. citizens, and crewed by U.S. citizens or permanent residents.
In order to avoid the Jones Act, according to Site Selection magazine, Dominion managed an end run for the first two monopiles in a 2020 pilot project, by “utilizing ports in Canada as staging grounds for components shipped from Europe. An installation vessel made repeated trips from Nova Scotia to the offshore construction zone to install foundations and then the remaining turbine parts.” A utility spokesman said, “It worked for the two pilot turbines, but for 176, that does not work.” Full-scale construction on the project began in May, 2024.
An interesting aspect of CVOW is the ownership structure. It’s being developed by the state regulated utility that will be its customer, Dominion, which owns 50% of the project. In October 2024, Dominion sold half of the project for $2.6 billion to New York investment firm Stonepeak. Dominion will continue to control the project.
Dominion will be its own engineering, procurement, and design contractor, with its customers assuming the project risks with rates approved by the state regulators. The other major U.S. offshore wind projects are being developed by independent companies, such as Norway’s Equinor, owner of the Empire project off New York, and Denmark’s Ørsted, owner of Revolution Wind off Rhode Island. The independent wind power producers will sell their power to onshore utilities through power purchase contracts.
Dominion hopes to have CVOW in service at the end of 2026.