Wind energy project passes another milestone

Published December 6, 2013 by Robert Powell, III

A federal agency has taken another step toward developing wind energy sources off the Virginia coast.

The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM)  announced Friday it had found “no competitive interest” in an area 24 miles off the Hampton Roads coastline where the Virginia Department of Mines, Minerals and Energy (DMME ) proposes the development of  an offshore wind test facility. It would involve two, utility-scale wind turbines generating a total of 12 megawatts (MW) of power.
The agency’s Determination of No Competitive Interest is part of a process leading to a wind-energy research lease.

This is the second wind energy research lease  request by DMME that the federal agency is considering. The first involves meteorological facilities the much larger within the Virginia Wind Energy Area,  adjacent to the new research lease site.

The data collected from the research lease would be publicly available and could influence the development of power in the Wind Energy Area.

In September, Dominion Virginia Power, the state’s largest utility company, won the commercial lease auction for Virginia’s Wind Energy Area. It leads the turbine demonstration project, which is funded by the U.S. Department of Energy.