The Charybdis, America’s first domestically built offshore wind turbine installation (WTIV) vessel, has commenced sea trials off Brownsville, Texas, according to Dominion Energy.
The vessel, constructed at the Seatrium AmFELS shipyard in Brownsville, will support the construction of the 2.6-gigawatt Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind (CVOW) project.
Standing at 472 feet long, Charybdis was built using over 14,000 tons of domestic steel, with nearly 10,000 tons sourced from Alabama, North Carolina, and West Virginia.
Dominion Energy is the developer of the CVOW project, and owns the Charybdis vessel through its subsidiary Blue Ocean Energy Marine.
Charybdis is designed to handle turbines with a capacity of 12 megawatts or larger and will operate from Hampton Roads, Virginia, when the vessel becomes fully operational. During the remainder of the project’s construction, Charybdis is expected to perform the world’s largest completed lift totaling 23,000 tons.
Located 27 miles off Virginia Beach, the CVOW project has reached its 50% completion milestone and remains on schedule for completion in late 2026, Dominion said in a progress report.
The project has already installed 16 transition pieces for its planned 176 wind turbines and recently received its first 4,300-ton offshore substation at Portsmouth Marine Terminal.
In a release to shareholders, Dominion Energy announced that the price of the CVOW project had increased by $900 million, or 9%, bringing the total to $10.7 billion.
The regulated utility placed the blame on “higher onshore electrical interconnection costs” and “higher network upgrade costs” that they must pay as part of coming onto the electric grid.
Despite the cost increase, Dominion Energy maintains that the project remains an affordable electricity source, with residential customers expected to see only a 43-cent monthly increase on typical bills.
