Northern Atlantic Coast News

Offshore wind construction in the U.S. Thrustmaster of Texas, a marine propulsion design and manufacturing company in the U.S., is looking to give an edge to U.S. based marine jack-up operators wanting to enter the U.S. offshore wind farm construction and maintenance sector by cutting the cost of entry in half with a unique propulsion system that allows conversion of existing vessels to dynamically positioned work vessels. The United States’ offshore wind market is exploding with opportunity, and current marine construction contracts are being awarded to operators outside the U.S.

Siemens and Cape Wind have signed a major contract for the construction of the United States' first utility-scale offshore wind farm situated off the Northeast coast, 20 kilometers offshore of Nantucket, at Horseshoe Shoal in the Nantucket Sound. Installation and commissioning is expected for 2016. Siemens says it will supply Cape Wind with its industry-leading 3.6-megawatt offshore wind turbines, an offshore Electric Service Platform (ESP) and a long-term service agreement. When fully built, Cape Wind will have a capacity of 468 megawatts. The company explains that offshore wind in the U.S.