USA, Virginia: Construction of the Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind (CVOW) project will resume after a federal judge temporarily lifted the Trump administration’s suspension on 16 January. The 176-turbine development, owned and operated by Dominion Energy, is the largest offshore wind project currently under construction in the US.
The suspension, issued by the Department of Interior in December, affected five East Coast offshore wind projects and cited national security concerns. Judge Jamar Walker of the US District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia granted Dominion’s request for a preliminary injunction, allowing work to restart while legal proceedings continue. Dominion described the previous suspension as “arbitrary and illegal.”
A Dominion spokesperson said the company will focus on safely restarting construction to ensure CVOW begins delivering critical energy within weeks. The project is designed to provide electricity for more than 600,000 homes and is scheduled to start dispatching power by the end of the first quarter of 2026.
The project will help meet growing electricity demand in northern Virginia, a region hosting the world’s largest data centre market. These facilities increasingly strain the grid as they require substantial power for artificial intelligence operations and other data-intensive applications.
The Trump administration also sought to halt four other offshore wind projects in December, including Vineyard Wind 1 off Massachusetts, Revolution Wind off Rhode Island, Sunrise Wind off Long Island, and Empire Wind 1 south of Long Island. Federal judges have since allowed Revolution Wind and Empire Wind to resume construction.
Following the news, Dominion Energy shares rose about 1 %, reflecting market optimism over the resumption of the project, which is seen as a key step in expanding renewable energy infrastructure along the US East Coast.
Source: CNBC
