Prysmian reported that loading of submarine cable for Dominion Energy’s Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind (CVOW) project onto its new ship, the Monna Lisa, at the company’s Arco Felice plant in Italy.

A press release said that the keel-laying ceremony for the Monna Lisa—a sister vessel to Leonardo da Vinci—had been held in Tulcea, Romania, in April 2023, to mark the start of construction, which took around 24 months. VARD launched the 171-meter vessel at the beginning of June 2024, after completing steel cutting, keel laying, generator installation, and hull erection. The CLV then began its journey of 4,000 nautical miles from Romania to Norway, towed down the Danube River, across the Mediterranean Sea, and up the coast of Portugal and Spain to VARD’s shipyard in Søvik to undertake final fit-out and trials.

Prysmian reported on February 6 that the vessel had joined its fleet. The company is providing three three-core 220 kV HVAC export cables measuring approximately 62 km, with XLPE insulation and single-wire armoring, for a total of approximately 560 km, while DEME is in charge of overseeing the complete offshore installation works for the foundations, substations, infield cables, and part of the export cables.

The 2.6 GW CVOW project will feature 176 Siemens Gamesa 14 MW wind turbines and will become the biggest U.S. offshore wind farm once in operation. In February, Dominion Energy revealed that the wind farm was approximately 50% complete and remains on track for on-time completion at the end of 2026.

Regarding issues of wind energy project permits, the CVOW project had been approved. However, the status of other such projects was not clear.