The US utility Dominion Energy is planning a major shift towards renewable energy and batteries as it looks to comply with Virginia’s new clean energy law. Dominion Energy announced a new integrated resource plan (IRP), which sets out a goal of nearly 16GW of solar, more than 5GW of offshore wind, and 2.7GW of energy storage over the next 15 years. These are nearly quadruple the targets laid out in Dominion’s 2019 IRP.
Dominion’s plan would see it starting with a near-term solicitation for up to 1GW on onshore wind and solar, and 250MW of energy storage for delivery over the next three years.
Dominion’s Virginia current generation portfolio is roughly one-third gas, one-third nuclear, one-quarter coal, with just over 5 per cent ascribed to renewable energy, much of it hydropower and biomass. While its new IRP intends to keep its four nuclear power plants running, that still leaves a large gap to be filled by renewable energy, as well as energy storage to integrate those intermittent resources into its power grid.