Eight companies have bid to develop offshore wind farms off the coast of Virginia, two of which are companies based in the state; the state’s largest electric utility, Richmond-based Dominion Resources and Charlottesville-based Apex Virginia Offshore Wind LLC. The other companies vying to develop are active in on-land wind farms in the Western United States and two are based in Spain.
The federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management oversees offshore wind development and stated that the companies that filed the necessary paperwork in April were New Jersey-based Arcadia Offshore Virginia LLC, a subsidiary of Arcadia Windpower; California-based enXco Development Corp., Nevada-based Cirrus Wind Energy, New Jersey-based Fishermen’s Energy LLC, Spanish Iberdrola Renewables Inc., which has offices on both coasts of the United States and another company based in Spain with office in Michigan.
The companies are competing to build wind turbines in about 113,000acres on the Outer Continental Shelf of the Atlantic Ocean, 23 miles off the coast of Virginia. Each company will be considered by federal regulators to determine the validity of the application and if each candidate is capable of funding offshore wind development. The area will be divided into square blocks, with each block being sold to the highest bidder or should there be no competition, to one entity to develop the entire area. Once the candidates have been dwindled down, should more than one candidate still be in the running an auction would be held in late 2012 or early 2013.