Page 49: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (May 2, 2010)

Cape Wind Project

Gets Green Light

Late last month Secretary of the Inte- rior Ken Salazar approved the Cape Wind renewable energy project on federal sub- merged lands in Nantucket Sound, but will require the developer of the $1 bil- lion wind farm to agree to additional binding measures to minimize the poten- tial adverse impacts of construction and operation of the facility. “After careful consideration of all the concerns ex- pressed during the lengthy review and consultation process and thorough analy- ses of the many factors involved, I find that the public benefits weigh in favor of approving the Cape Wind project at the

Horseshoe Shoal location,” Salazar said in an announcement at the State House in

Boston. The Cape Wind project would be the first wind farm on the U.S. Outer

Continental Shelf, generating enough power to meet 75 percent of the electric- ity demand for Cape Cod, Martha's Vine- yard and Nantucket Island combined.

A number of similar projects have been proposed for other northeast coastal states, positioning the region to tap 1 mil- lion MW of offshore Atlantic wind en- ergy potential.

Jumbo Offshore: Installs

Offshore Wind Equipment

Jumbo Offshore’s crew, engineers and subcontractors have completed the first leg of its current Transition Piece (TP) in- stallation project. Jumbo’s DP2-vessel

Jumbo Javelin installed the TP’s, the first 18 of a series of approximately 110, within schedule. The work for the

Greater Gabbard Offshore Wind Farm (GGOWF), off the UK’s south-east coast, will take up the better part of the rest of the year. This is the first time that TP’s have been transported and installed using a free floating vessel on DP. After loading the 270 t TP’s in the Port of Flushing, the

Jumbo Javelin sailed, with open hold, to the offshore location. There, it positioned itself on DP and lifted the first TP onto the monopile. After leveling the TP to its final position, the space between TP and foundation pile (annulus) was filled with grout to fix it permanently. It was the first time that TP’s were installed on monopiles from a free floating vessel on

DP in one trip. This ship-based, self sta- bilizing platform actively compensates vessel motions, enabling safe access and support in wave heights up to Hs = 2.5 m (significant wave height). The Jumbo

Javelin uses its DP2-system to create, among others, a working environment in which TP’s can be installed in wave heights up to Hs = 1.5 m. $73.6M for New NOAA

Fisheries Survey Vessel

NOAA awarded a $73.6m American

Recovery and Reinvestment Act contract to Marinette Marine, for the construction of a new fisheries survey vessel. The ves- sel will be the fifth in a series of state-of- the-art Oscar Dyson-class ships built for the agency. “Our fisheries and marine ecosystems are critical to our nation’s economy,” said Jane Lubchenco, Ph.D., under secretary of commerce for oceans and atmosphere and NOAA administra- tor. “Thanks to the Recovery Act, this new vessel will greatly enhance our un- derstanding of our ocean resources and play a vital role in supporting NOAA’s mission.” The ship will be equipped with a full suite of modern instrumentation for fisheries and oceanographic research.

May 2010 www.marinelink.com 49