The nation’s largest offshore wind farm has won its final federal permit to raise more than 176 turbines off the coast of Virginia Beach, a federal council said Wednesday.
The $9.8 billion wind farm, being built by the Richmond, Virginia, utility Dominion Energy, could power more than 600,000 homes. It received its final federal approval earlier this month with an air quality permit from EPA.
The Federal Permitting Improvement Steering Council announced the progress Wednesday. The body was created by the Fixing America’s Surface Transportation Act in 2015 to coordinate federal environment reviews for infrastructure projects seeking to avoid potential bureaucratic delays.
Offshore wind farms currently represent almost half of the projects being supported by the council, said Eric Beightel, permitting council executive director, in a statement.
