Fugro expanding its offshore wind expertise centre in Virginia

Fugro will expand its regional centre of expertise for offshore wind, located in Norfolk, Virginia, as the company’s Virginia operations have grown over the past decade with the increase in the number of offshore wind projects on the U.S. East Coast.

The expansion, which was announced by Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin on 26 June, will create an additional 15 jobs in the state, according to a press release from the governor’s office.

Fugro is delivering some of its services for one of its latest contracts in the US, that for the 3 GW Community Offshore wind project, from its centre in Virginia.

At the beginning of this year, the company also signed a letter of intent to optimise and perform a site characterisation programme for undisclosed offshore wind development on the U.S. East Coast.

Virginia currently has three offshore wind projects, one operational, one under construction and one in development.

In 2020, Dominion Energy’s 12 MW Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind (CVOW) pilot project went online, representing the first two offshore wind turbines to be installed in U.S. federal waters. The pilot is a predecessor to the 2.6 GW commercial-scale CVOW project, also owned by Dominion Energy, which entered the construction phase at the end of the last year.

Virginia is also planned to be home to where the multi-gigawatt Kitty Hawk project, being developed by Avangrid offshore North Carolina, would make landfall and connect to the electricity network.

According to information available on the website of Virginia’s Department of Energy, the state anticipates it could have up to 10 GW installed by 2030.

“Virginia is poised to become the market leader in offshore wind technology, development, and deployment, and the expansion of Fugro’s Americas Center of Expertise for the industry in the City of Norfolk will advance energy innovation in the Commonwealth and in the U.S.”, said Governor Glenn Youngkin. “We are committed to a strategy to ensure a reliable, affordable, and clean energy economy of tomorrow for Virginians, and Fugro’s research on offshore wind development aids our efforts while also creating new, high-quality jobs”.