The US offshore wind industry has begun with a rocky start, featuring high interest rates, inflation, turbine breakages, low interest in some lease auctions, and a looming election – with the first two, simple cost, being the most significant factors which have dampened the sector’s growth. The latest source of extra cost for US offshore wind is Dominion Energy’s Charybdis wind turbine installation vessel, which is now costed at $715 million according to the utility’s latest quarterly financial results, roughly double the production cost available overseas. The vessel was first ordered in 2020, and set out to sea in April 2024, making it the country’s first Jones Act-compliant wind turbine installation vessel (WTIV) – now assigned to the Coastal Virginia…