More equipment for Dominion’s offshore wind farm now in Portsmouth

PORTSMOUTH, Va. (WAVY) — New parts for Dominion’s offshore wind farm are now at the Portsmouth Marine Terminal awaiting installation.

Previously: Largest U.S. offshore wind project for VB coast gets federal approval

You may have spotted the large yellow pieces if you’ve driven by. These are transition pieces, and essentially the second part of an offshore wind turbine.

In constructing a wind turbine, the monopiles go in first. Then, the yellow transition piece is added on top — made out of steel. Then, the wind turbine generator is added on top of the transition piece.

There will be a total of 176 transition pieces eventually installed on top of the monopiles, so you’ll be seeing more of these arrive in the coming months.

Part 1, the orange/brown and white monopiles, have been at PMT since last October. There are currently 40 at the site. The Orion vessel, a very large and impressive ship with a powerful crane, will carry six monopiles at a time to the offshore site and install them.

Dominion spokesperson Jeremy Slayton said that once many of the monopiles are installed, Orion will install the transition pieces on top of the foundations later this year.

“There are currently 6 transition pieces at PMT,” Slayton said. “Orion will install the transition pieces, but Dominion will use Jones Act feeder barges to transport the transition pieces from PMT to the construction area.”

When complete, the 2.6 gigawatt project will power as many as 660,000 customers at peak output, according to Dominion Energy.

You can track the status of the project and see what else is involved in it with an interactive map Dominion has produced.

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