Solar project at Naval Air Station Oceana gains approval
Dominion Virginia Power’s proposal to build a 21-megawatt direct current solar energy facility at the Naval Air Station Oceana in Virginia Beach, Virginia, was approved on Tuesday and is expected to be operational late next year.
“Not only did we meet the one gigawatt (GW) goal ashore five years early, we surpassed it reaching 1.1 GW by the end of last year,” Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus said. “In doing so, we’ve achieved $90 million in nominal energy cost savings, $62 million in energy security hardware upgrades to bases, 170 megawatts of access to power during outages and 22 million tons of CO2 abated. And we are just getting started. Today, the State of Virginia, the Hampton Roads community, Dominion Virginia Power and our Navy and Marine Corps are joining together to add to our success, to protect the future of NS Norfolk and NAS Oceana, and to enhance national security for the American people.”
Dominion, the Department of the Navy and the Commonwealth of Virginia came to an agreement regarding the facility on Tuesday after Dominion filed the related permits on Monday. The Oceana solar plant will be built on 100 acres of the naval base and will comprise 179,000 solar panels. It will provide an alternative electric feed directly to the naval base and is expected to generate enough electricity to power 4,400 homes.
The project marks Dominion’s second solar project to be built on a naval base after the Morgans Corner 25-megawatt facility was completed in December.
