Virginia’s push for offshore wind

   The Virginia Offshore Wind Development Authority, the City of Norfolk, and the Virginia Ship Repair Association have joined forces with Environment Virginia to promote the economic and environmental benefits of supporting offshore wind power and its related supply chain industries to Capitol Hill lawmakers.
   “Hampton Roads is known for its tremendous maritime workforce, shipbuilding capabilities, and deep ports with unlimited clearance,” said Larry Lombardi, business development manager for the City of Norfolk, in a statement. “The emerging offshore wind industry can change this region’s economic landscape toward greater job growth, higher wages and an increase in tax revenues.”
   In October, Dominion Virginia Power signed the nation’s second offshore wind lease. In addition to a strong network of state and private support, the company was one of seven national finalists awarded first-round funding for offshore wind project development from the U.S. Department of Energy.
   However, there are still challenges facing Virginia’s offshore wind aspirations, including “continued financial support for an industry still in its infancy,” Environment Virginia said. Despite bipartisan support for federal policies to promote renewable energy, the main federal incentives for wind — the investment tax credit (ITC) and the production tax credit (PTC) — are currently set to expire at the end of 2013, the group warned.
   Earlier this year, a bipartisan group of U.S. senators led by Susan Collins, R-Maine, and Thomas Carper, D-Del., introduced the Incentivizing Offshore Wind Power Act (S.401), which would provide the financial certainty needed by the country’s offshore wind America’s emerging offshore wind industry by providing an ITC for offshore wind power worth up to 30 percent of the cost of the project for the first 3,000 megawatts of offshore wind projects in the United States.