By Mike Schuler, gCaptain
Turbine installation has kicked off at the nation’s largest offshore wind project just days after a federal judge lifted the Trump administration’s controversial work suspension, with Senator Tim Kaine announcing the installation of the first permanent turbine tower at the Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind (CVOW).
Local media footage shows the newly commissioned installation, U.S.-flagged Wind Turbine Installation Vessel (WTIV) Charybdis, erecting the first of 176 turbine towers 27 miles off Virginia Beach — a milestone that marks a critical turning point for the $11.2 billion project after weeks of legal uncertainty threatened to derail construction.
“Today, I toured the Portsmouth Marine Terminal and was updated on the progress made on the Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind project,” Kaine wrote on social media. “This incredible project will bolster offshore wind in Virginia, lower costs, and grow the local economy.”
The installation follows a January 16 ruling by Judge Jamar Walker of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, which granted Dominion Energy a preliminary injunction allowing work to resume while its lawsuit challenging the Interior Department’s December 22 suspension of CVOW and four other offshore wind projects under construction in federal waters proceeds.
The decision marked the third federal court setback in a week for the administration’s offshore wind suspension, following similar rulings favoring Equinor’s $5.3 billion Empire Wind project off New York and Ørsted’s Revolution Wind in the Northeast. All had been halted by a December 22 Interior Department order citing national-security concerns tied to possible radar interference.
At the Norfolk hearing, Judge Walker concluded that Interior’s sweeping stop-work order was not narrowly tailored to Dominion’s project. The court noted that the government’s cited national security concerns — particularly related to radar interference — applied primarily to wind farm operations rather than construction activity.
The timing was critical for Dominion, which has already invested nearly $9 billion into the project and warned that the construction pause was costing roughly $5 million per day. Following the ruling, the company said it would “focus on safely restarting work to ensure CVOW begins delivery of critical energy in just weeks.”
Interior had ordered the suspension on December 22, citing newly classified national security information. But a growing string of courtroom defeats suggests the administration may face difficulty sustaining the policy under judicial scrutiny.
Commissioning setbacks pushed the start of turbine installation from an initial September target to late November 2025, adding to the already complex project’s schedule pressure.
