© 2024 WHRO Public Media
5200 Hampton Boulevard, Norfolk VA 23508
757.889.9400 | info@whro.org
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

A towering crane on a big ship has lit up the Norfolk and Portsmouth skylines. What is it?

The Orion, which sports a nearly 300-foot-tall crane (left), looms over the container cranes at the Port of Virginia facility next door. (Photo courtesy of Tina Wright)
The Orion, which sports a nearly 300-foot-tall crane (left), looms over the container cranes at the Port of Virginia facility next door. (Photo courtesy of Tina Wright)
The Orion, which sports a nearly 300-foot-tall crane (left), looms over the container cranes at the Port of Virginia facility next door. (Photo courtesy of Tina Wright)

Hint: It’s got to do with Dominion Energy’s offshore wind project.

A large ship with a massive crane appeared on the Norfolk and Portsmouth skylines last weekend, lighting up the night and prompting some WHRO readers to send us photos and questions.

The ship is the Orion, a 700-foot-long heavy-lift vessel that arrived at the Portsmouth Marine Terminal at the end of April, said Dominion Energy spokesman Jeremy Slayton.

It sports a nearly 300-foot-tall crane, which dwarfs the blue container cranes at the Port of Virginia facility next door.

Dominion Energy will use the Orion and its crane to move monopiles — the foundation pieces —- for its 176 offshore wind turbines.

The ship can handle six monopiles at a time, which weigh 1,500 tons each. The Orion will head off the coast of Virginia Beach, where crews will sink the monopiles into the ocean floor over the course of a few days.

The vessel is now being prepped for its first foray for the offshore wind project.

“It's an exciting milestone for the project and we're looking forward to getting steel in the water,” Slayton said.

The Orion will carry six 1,500-ton monopiles at a time out to the site of Dominion's offshore wind farm.
Courtesy of DEME
The Orion will carry six 1,500-ton monopiles at a time out to the site of Dominion's offshore wind farm.

The Orion was specially built for the offshore wind industry in 2019. It has worked on other projects around the world, most recently off the coast of Scotland, Slayton said.

Portsmouth and Norfolk residents will be able to see the Orion coming in and out of port regularly between now and the end of October.

Dominion can’t work past that time because of migrating North Atlantic Right Whales.

If the utility company doesn’t sink all its monopiles this year, the Orion will return next May, after the whales have finished their annual migrations.

Ryan is WHRO’s business and growth reporter. He joined the newsroom in 2021 after eight years at local newspapers, the Daily Press and Virginian-Pilot. Ryan is a Chesapeake native and still tries to hold his breath every time he drives through the Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnel.


The world changes fast.

Keep up with daily local news from WHRO. Get local news every weekday in your inbox.

Sign-up here.