The event provided an opportunity for people to meet experts in environmental studies, turbine and foundation design and find out about the project’s timetable.
Five stands provided information about the project, Department of Mines, Minerals and Energy’s research lease, environmental studies and permitting, technology and innovations and the offshore cable route and onshore interconnection.
Dominion Virginia Power hosted the event to share information about the test project with politicians and the public.
The electricity company believes several hundred direct and indirect jobs will be created by the demonstration project.
Dominion was one of seven projects selected by the US Department of Energy (DoE) in 2012 to receive $4 million each to undertake the engineering, site evaluation and planning of a demonstration facility.
In its application, the team proposed designing, developing, and demonstrating a grid-connected, 12MW offshore wind facility consisting of two Alstom Haliade 6MW turbines mounted on innovative foundations.
The DoE will select up to three of the seven proposals in May 2014 for follow-on funding to move forward with the final design, permitting and construction of the demonstration projects.
The final three sites will be selected for their value in bringing offshore wind technology innovations to market.
They could receive $47 million each in federal funding over four years, with the aim of having technology testing projects operational by the end of 2017.
Dominion's primary location for the demonstration project is in federal waters about 24 miles off the coast of Virginia Beach.
The aim of this project is to identify ways technology advancements can lower the cost of future commercial scale projects.
