New offshore wind construction concept launched to clear impending US bottleneck | Reload

An innovative concept for building offshore wind farms has been launched today (Monday) by ONP Management and Renewable Resources International (RRI) to help address the looming installation vessel bottleneck faced by developers constructing the first gigawatts of projects in the American Atlantic.

The so-called Feederdock – which is based on a U-shaped crane vessel that can moor tug barges shuttling between the shore yard jacket, blades and pods and the site, creating an installation process” fixed-to-fixed” which avoids issues with floating barges offloading components to a jackup – expected to be “25-30% faster” than competing feeder solutions, installing up to three ultra-large turbines every two days.

Featuring a 3,000 tonne crane with a maximum hook height of 182 metres, the jackup was designed by European merchant marine heavyweight Tractebel Overdick to handle turbine components as large as 25 MW in waters as deep as 70 meters. Tug barges are designed to be built in America, in accordance with the Jones Act which requires all vessels moving between US ports to be US flagged and crewed.

“This is a Jones Law compliant worldwide installation concept. Its main advantage, however, is that other power barge designs need multiple lifts to transfer components [to the installation vessel] ours only “park”, then the whole unit turns on [together as one]. It circumvents all that – very time-consuming – uncertainty of the deal,” said RRI Managing Partner Andy Geissbuhler, speaking to Reload before launch.

“We’re aiming to have it ready for 2026 because that’s when the really big wave of construction is going to hit. [off the US east coast]. And it will be completely independent of the port, ie whether the tugs have to go under the bridges or not, it is an efficient solution, we think 25 to 30% faster than other concepts.

“The concept can also support a local supply chain: with this solution, tugs could sail up the Hudson River. [in New York state], for example, and collects components from various vendors and then transports them to a major coastal port for staging and assembly. We think all of this provides enormous flexibility for the developer,” Geissbuhler said.

ONP Management and RRI have secured the shipyard’s capacity to build a first Feederdock flotilla, which will be operated by Harren Group-owned Atheleon within four years. The development of the concept is financially supported by an unnamed “US-based global asset manager”.

“This solution provides the ability to have all of your components in different locations, but all efficiently routed to the jackup that is permanently installed. A much better use of time overall,” Geissbuhler said.

Martin Rahtge, Managing Partner at ONP Management, said: “Our experience, stemming from [consultancy work on] the design, construction and operation of heavy lift installation vessels, including both [DEME’s] Innovation and Vol au Ventexemplifies our ability to serve the development of this game-changing project and to ensure a successful completion of the project.

“All of our lessons learned have been incorporated into the design of the Feederdock and are constantly benchmarked against the industry.”

The American Bureau of Shipping is “accompanying” the ship’s review and classification project ahead of launch, after awarding the concept its key “approval in principle” in 2020.

There is currently only one Conventional Wind Turbine Installation Vessel (WTIV) under construction for the US market, the Charybdiswho has already been chartered by developers for construction campaigns on the Revolution and Sunrise projects offshore Rhode Island and Massachusetts, then offshore Virginia for the giant 2.6 GW Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind mega-project.

Geissbuhler said: “It is generally accepted that the industry needs to move quickly to power solutions [because of the lack of WTIVs] but the solutions currently anticipated on the market have the enormous disadvantage with regard to the actual transfer of the components at sea, from the floating barge to the jack-up – risky, complicated and time-consuming. Our solutions prevent this from being a problem.

The US Biden administration last year set the “national goal” of having 30 GW of offshore wind power plants operational by 2030, but the industry has been given a monumental task to achieve this goal due to factors such as an almost non-existent industry supply chain, an aging onshore power grid and battles with other ocean industries, primarily the fishing sector.