Virginia Governor Ralph Northam has announced an agreement for Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy to establish the first offshore wind turbine blade facility in the United States.

Virginia-based Dominion Energy had previously selected the company as its partner for the energy generation project 27 mi. off the coast of Virginia Beach. Next, Siemens Gamesa will lease more than 80 acres of the Commonwealth’s Portsmouth Marine Terminal and will build a facility to produce turbine blades supplying offshore wind projects in North America. The facility, combined with its operations and maintenance activities, will create a total of 310 new jobs, of which roughly 50 will be service jobs to support the Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind Project. The project represents a total cost of $200 million, including over $80 million in investments for buildings and equipment at the Portsmouth Marine Terminal.

Once fully constructed in 2026, Dominion Energy’s Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind project will generate enough clean, sustainable energy to power up to 660,000 homes at peak and avoid as much as 5 million tons of carbon dioxide annually, the company reports.