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Dominion Power’s wind generators situated 27 miles off of Virginia Seaside within the Atlantic Ocean on July 17, 2023.
Kendall Warner | Virginian Pilot | Getty Photos
The Trump administration on Monday halted Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind, the biggest mission of its sort within the U.S., in addition to 4 different initiatives off the East Coast in a devastating blow to the wind business.
Shares of Dominion Power, the utility growing the mission, dropped greater than 4% on the information.
The administration additionally paused leases for Winery Wind 1 off Massachusetts, Revolution Wind off Rhode Island, Dawn Wind off Lengthy Island and New England, and Empire Wind 1 south of Lengthy Island.
Inside Secretary Doug Burgum mentioned the administration paused leases for the initiatives on account of nationwide safety issues recognized by the Pentagon.
Shares of Denmark’s Orsted, the developer of the Revolution and Dawn initiatives, tumbled 11%. Norway’s Equinor, the developer of Empire Wind 1, was down lower than 1%.
Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind is a 176 turbine mission mission that would offer sufficient energy for greater than 600,000 properties, in accordance with Dominion. The mission was anticipated to be full subsequent yr.
Dominion mentioned the large mission is important for U.S. nationwide safety and Virginia’s dramatically rising power wants. Northern Virginia is the biggest hub for information facilities on the planet. Rising demand from synthetic intelligence is contributing to greater electrical energy costs within the state.
“Stopping CVOW for any size of time will threaten grid reliability for among the nation’s most vital conflict combating, AI, and civilian belongings,” the utility mentioned in a press release. “It should additionally result in power inflation and threaten 1000’s of jobs.”
Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin, a Republican, helps the mission. Incoming Gov. Abigail Spanberger, a Democrat, received the gubernatorial election in November on a promise to deal with rising electrical energy prices partially by increasing renewable power.
The Inside Division mentioned in a press release that the pause will give the federal authorities time to “work with leaseholders and state companions to evaluate the potential for mitigating the nationwide safety dangers posed by these initiatives.”
Inside mentioned the U.S. authorities discovered that turbine blades and “extremely reflective towers” create radar interference danger.
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