Offshore Wind News

“Wind Turbines: The Bigger, the Better” -USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency & Renewable Energy, August 24, 2023Last December the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) published a proposed sale notice regarding new development areas for utility scale wind projects in the central Atlantic Ocean. The notice includes an upfront issue: the need to mitigate conflicts with U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) activities. BOEM explains that in certain areas the Air Force has set an airspace floor of 1,000 feet above sea level and the Air Force asked BOEM to keep structures below that height.

New York State on Friday stalled three major offshore wind-energy projects after General Electric Vernova GE.N changed the turbine design, which the state said "materially altered" the plans.New York provisionally approved the projects in October 2023. They are Attentive Energy One being developed by TotalEnergies, Rise Light & Power and Corio Generation; Community Offshore Wind, which is backed by RWE and National Grid Ventures; and Vineyard Offshore's Excelsior Wind.But since then…

If nothing else, building vessels in the U.S. is a complicated business.In a session on the domestic shipbuilding marketplace, at Marine Money’s late-November 2023 conference held in New Orleans, Ben Bordelon, president and CEO of Bollinger Shipyards (with more than a dozen facilities, in Mississippi and Louisiana), described his company’s architecture as a “three-legged stool approach: commercial newbuilds, government newbuilds and repair/conversion capabilities”.On the same panel…

DEME has been awarded two contracts from cable solutions provider Prysmian for the engineering and installation works for the IJmuiden Ver Alpha and Nederwiek 1 offshore grid systems in the Netherlands, whose combined worth is over $315 million.This is the most extensive cabling award in DEME’s history and marks the company's first project involving Prysmian’s 525 kV HVDC cable technology, featuring increased transmission capacity, according to the company.The contracts encompass cable installation…

UK-based offshore vessel designer Chartwell Marine has started the construction of its new Brevity Class crew transfer vessel (CTV) at the Diverse Marine shipyard, becoming the latest in its growing pipeline of new vessel builds to supply the global offshore wind market.Chartwell Marine’s current new build pipeline now exceeds 15 vessels across six local shipyards – with 14 offshore wind vessels launched and operational at major offshore wind farms, including two in U.S. waters.The company’s latest CTV entered build in March 2024…

Shipbuilder Vard announced it has delivered a new commissioning service operation vessel (CSOV) to Norway's Rem Offshore.The vessel—NB 948, to be named Rem Wind—was constructed at Vard Vung Tau in Vietnam and handed over one month before contractual delivery date, the builder said.Tailor-made for worldwide services and maintenance operations at offshore wind farms, the 85-meter-long vessel is of VARD 4 19 design with a 19.5-meter beam, accommodation for 120 people, a height-adjustable motion-compensated gangway with elevators…

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has issued the final air quality permit for Dominion Energy’s 2.6 GW Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind (CVOW) project located off the coast of Virginia Beach in the United States.Issued on April 9 following a 30-day public comment period, the permit authorizes the construction and operation of the largest offshore wind project in the U.S.

DEME’s DP3 offshore installation vessel Orion has departed for the United States to prepare for the installation of 176 foundations on the Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind (CVOW) project, following the wrap up of works at the 882 MW Moray West offshore wind farm in Scotland.DEME’s flagship Orion vessel has completed monopile installation works on Ocean Winds’ Moray West offshore wind farm project in Scotland.Despite harsh winter conditions, DEME managed to install 29 monopiles in approximately two months.Meanwhile…

The industry consortium behind the Ocean Charger project, led by Vard, has completed the demonstration of the charging solution in a port as well the connection solution offshore, proving the technology designed to supply clean power to offshore wind vessels is ready for the market.By connecting vessels to the power grid in the wind farm and charging batteries regularly, the Ocean Charger solution is securing availability of emission-free vessel operations.The Ocean Charger has proved through the tests that it can power operations at the field without using any additional energy sources…

The United States' first Jones Act-compliant offshore wind turbine installation vessel (WTIV), Charybdis, was launched into the water at the Seatrium AmFELS shipyard in Brownsville, Texas.The 472-foot WTIV—the first and only to be constructed in the U.S.—is being built for Blue Ocean Energy Marine, a subsidiary of Dominion Energy, who announced the milestone on Monday. Welding of the ship's hull and commissioning of the vessel's four legs and related jacking system has been completed…

Mitsui O.S.K. Lines (MOL) has signed a basic contract for the marine transport of offshore wind components with JFE Engineering Corporation, while also agreeing to build a new module carrier vessel with Taizhou Sanfu Ship Engineering.This will be first coastal module carrier in Japan to transport components for offshore wind turbine foundation components, according to MOL. MOL DrybulkThe vessel is scheduled for delivery in the spring of 2026, and will then engage in the coastal transport of offshore wind turbine foundations from JFE Engineering's manufacturing base in Kasaoka-shi…

Arctia Meritaito, a subsidiary of Finland's Arctia, announced it has been awarded a contract by the Norwegian Mapping Authority to perform hydrographic seabed surveying as part of the 2024 Mareano program.Under its contract from the Norwegian Mapping Authority's Hydrographic Service (NHS), Arctia Meritaito will survey approximately 1,900 square kilometers with multibeam echosounder and sub bottom profiler in potential offshore wind area Sørvest F in the North Sea.The surveys will be conducted by the multipurpose research vessel Pohjanmeri.

Norwegian shipbuilder Ulstein Verft on Saturday launched the new Olympic construction service operation vessel (CSOV), Olympic Boreas.The newbuild is first of two sister vessels for Olympic, designed to assist in offshore energy construction projects and service assignments.The launch saw the vessel towed out the dock hall and moored quayside for outfitting work."The general outfitting work, which consists of accommodation work, electrical installations, piping and mechanical installations, to name a few, is well underway.

Ørsted and Cadeler have signed a firm long-term lease agreement for a newbuilt wind farm installation vessel, designed to transport up to six XXL monopile foundations and five turbines of over 20 MW per round trip.With the agreement, Ørsted has secured installation vessel capacity from the start of 2027 to end of 2030 for upcoming construction projects.The agreement involves booking a new-built A-Class vessel from Cadeler. The A-Class vessels feature a hybrid design, allowing…

Norwegian offshore-wind focused vessel owner Norwind Offshore has placed an order for a stand-alone fully electric crane from Seaonics for its newbuild vessel Norwind Helm.The order is for an ECMC 7t-3D crane, and follows the delivery of Seaonics' first electric gangway system to Norwind Hurricane commissioning service operation vessel (CSOV) in March 2024.The crane is to be installed in connection with the delivery of the newbuild from Vard Brattvaag end of November 2024 and…

Con Edison Transmission and National Grid Ventures submitted a plan to carry offshore wind power to New Jersey's electric grid as the state aims to meet renewable energy goals, according to a press release on Thursday.If awarded, the 'Garden State Energy Path' proposal involves building transmission infrastructure that would be operational by early 2029 and deliver about six gigawatts (GW) of offshore wind power, Con Edison said."This project is foundational to helping New Jersey reach its goal of 11 GW of offshore wind by 2040," it said.Earlier this week, California’s grid operator recommende

The U.S. Interior Department on Tuesday approved the country's eighth commercial-scale offshore wind project, which will be built off the coast of Massachusetts, bringing online electricity to power more than 900,000 homes.The approval for Avangrid’s New England Wind Project brings the U.S. one-third of the way to President Joe Biden's goal of permitting 30 gigawatts of offshore wind capacity by 2030—a key part of the president's climate change agenda.The project comes just a week after the Interior Department approved another offshore wind project, Orsted's Sunrise Wind, in New York.

Norway-based Edda Wind on Tuesday announced it has taken delivery of a newly built service operation vessel (SOV) from Spanish shipbuilder Astilleros Balenciaga.The vessel, C416—to be renamed Edda Goelo at a later stage—was delivered on March 26. It will be the permanent vessel in the contract with Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy at the Saint-Brieuc wind farm in France, running until Q2 2028. C416 is of Salt 0358 design and the sister vessel of Edda Brint, delivered from Astilleros Balenciaga in October 2022.

A project to transform the Port Talbot into a major hub for floating offshore wind (FLOW) and green energy development has come one step closer to securing a share of up to $200 million (£160 million) of UK Government funding.The UK Government has agreed to take forward the Future Port Talbot project and the Port of Cromarty Firth to undergo due diligence as part of the next stage of its Floating Offshore Wind Manufacturing Investment Scheme (FLOWMIS).The due diligence process…

Port of Aberdeen has stepped closer to becoming a strategic hub for floating offshore wind, with its proposed South Harbour upgrade project progressing to Stage 2 ‘priority’ status in the Scottish Offshore Wind Energy Council’s (SOWEC) strategic investment model.The significant upgrade involves a capital dredge project to deepen 750 meters of quayside to  -14.5 meters chart datum, providing suitable depth for the majority of ScotWind and INTOG project turbine designs.Combined with South Harbour’s expansive laydown area and ultra heavy-lift capacity…

Between January 2023 and February 2024, TDI-Brooks conducted an extensive site investigation program in two offshore wind blocks in state and federal waters. The projects involved surveying in excess of 20,000 line-kms of analogue and either single or multi-channel seismic in lease blocks and cable routes along the coasts of New York and New Jersey. Various tasks were carried out at different stages, such as offshore geophysical surveys, UHRS detailed surveys, archaeological identification surveys…

Italian classification and marine engineering consultancy RINA has issued an approval in principle (AiP) to Kindon New Energy Technology for its green methanol offshore production platform solution.Produced entirely offshore, the methanol is derived from renewable CO2 through DAC (Direct Air Capture) technology and green hydrogen from offshore wind power water electrolysis technology.The platform will produce 0.1 MTPA of green methanol via process that synthesizes methanol from…

Offshore wind developer Vineyard Offshore announced that Rick Musiol, Jr. has joined the company as Director of External Affairs and Community Engagement. In this newly created position, Musiol will lead community engagement and corporate citizenship programs everywhere Vineyard Offshore has a presence.“As Vineyard Offshore expands its work on the East and West Coasts, our top priority is to be an active and engaged member of the community,” said Christian Scorzoni, Chief External Affairs Officer for Vineyard Offshore.