Page 63: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (November 2017)

he algorithms are built on top of the dy- is Deepwater Wind’s South Fork, although Statoil now

Foreign ? rsts namic-positioning (controls) — accel- also has rights to areas acreage. Ship owners would be

The largest U.S. wind farm is expected to be U.S. erate, decelerate, wait, (throttle). Due wise to get to know the unfamiliar company names win-

Wind’s $2.5 billion installation 12 miles off the coast of to the repetition involved (in operating ning leases in New Jersey (offering over 345,000 acres), Ocean City, Md. U.S. Wind brings international experi- “T “T a wind-turbine service vessel’s walk-to-work platform, North Carolina (429,000 acres), Rhode Island (Deepwa- ence via its Italian leadership and will need it to install or W2W), you need an auto-stop mechanism. It’s too ter Wind) or Maryland, where U.S. Wind Inc. plans a a planned 187 turbines by 2020. Despite such apparent much for one person,” a source close to Norwegian tug 248 MW project for 2020 and Skipjack Offshore Energy needs for vessels, our calls to U.S. operators about their owner Ostensjo’s two wind-service vessel new-builds LLC’s a 120 MW windfarm due 2022. future shipping needs produced “reluctance”, although tells us over coffee in downtown Norway. North Carolina in 2017 quali? ed nine companies to there are good reasons for caution: Reason No. 1 is the

A survey con? rms the preponderance of Norway’s bid in its seventh offshore lease auction, and in March not-yet assembled offshore wind supply chain. offshore ? eet owners are building new or converting 2017 an auction for the Kitty Hawk Wind Energy Area,

There’s another reason: The Block Island, RI, project vessels to capture wind-service market share. So, too, or WEA, for 122,405 acres went to Avangrid Renew- revealed that while jack-up vessels could install wind- are the Dutch, the Danes and the Brits — and, yes, the ables with a winning bid of $9.1 million. Projects now turbines with fair ease and security, smaller “support

Americans. Some Northern European ship owners say tend to dwarf the pioneering ? ve-turbine, $350 million jack-ups” available locally appeared to some to strug- they’re content to serve the world’s hitherto largest off- Block Island project of 2014-2016. gle while handling large, unwieldy turbine components shore wind markets: Britain and Germany. “America,” while being buffeted by waves. Cells, rotor blades, for these, is too “wait-and-see.” Fortunes align shafts, ? anges and towers require scale or risks appear

Some of their peers, however, have secured U.S. part- BOEM checks the legal, ? nancial and technical where- high. Word of Block Island’s “demo” spread via vet- ners, builders or design of? ces to serve what market withal of offshore operators now deep in planning that’ll eran deck hands who had compared small local hires watchers know is the largest undeveloped wind market in make them U.S. offshore grid owners. Statoil won the to the large installation vessel, Bold Tern, of Block Is- the world: at least ? ve U.S. coastal states have held suc- wind lease sale for 80,000 acres offshore New York and land’s capable hire, Fred Olsen Windcarrier. cessive, successful offshore lease sales for some of the plans a wind park of up to 600 MW in the New York over 2,000,000 acres in offshore wind concessions un- Wind Energy Area, or WEA, 30 to 60 miles offshore

New designs der auction. Populace New York and Massachusetts (the in water 65 to 130 feet deep. “The U.S. is a key emerg- “A typical windfarm support vessel,” says Vard De- latter with mega-project bids due this December 2017) ing market for offshore wind — both bottom-? xed and sign’s concepts VP, Kjell Morten Urke, of the Vard 4, a are notable for total acreage offerings of at least 750,000 ? oating — with signi? cant potential along both the east type offered American builders via the company’s U.S. acres, according to numbers from the Department of the and west coasts,” the operator says, echoing a DOI re- of? ces. “Typical” implied a norm has been established

Interior and the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management. port. Like the others, Statoil’s an offshore stakeholder by Europe’s veteran offshore wind industry (now over

New York in 2017 quali? ed 14 companies for its sixth elsewhere: at Sherrington Shoal off the U.K. since 2012 20 years old), as exempli? ed by Fred Olsen Windcar- lease sale, part of a commitment to 2.4 gigawatts of in- and at a just-installed, ? rst-ever ? oating wind park for rier. Vard, too, is con? dent of its U.S. clout. “We’re stalled offshore wind energy hoped for by 2030. The ? rst its lauded Hywind turbines offshore Scotland.

ready. We’re in Holland right not presenting the (just

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