Offshore wind farm company Ørsted and U.S.-based offshore wind support operator, WindServe Marine, are partnering to build two new crew transfer vessels (CTV s) for the budding Jones Act wind market. CTV’s are the workboats that carry workers to and from offshore wind towers for construction, maintenance and operations, and the new builds will be the second and third of their type in America.
North Carolina-based firm U.S. Workboats will build one hull, which will be used for the Ørsted / Dominion Energy sponsored Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind Project, a small pilot project with two turbines. The second hull will be built at Sensco Marine in Rhode Island, and will be used for the Ørsted / Eversource-sponsored Revolution Wind project for southern Rhode Island and Connecticut. The first boat is under construction at U.S. Workboats. It will be delivered next year.
Both WindServe and Senesco are owned by Reinauer Transportation, which has been involved in the U.S. East Coast maritime industry for nearly 100 years.
“Choosing WindServe to build our CTVs at Senesco will provide locally built vessels and a local operator for the domestic offshore wind industry,” said Thomas Brostrøm, President and CEO of Ørsted North America. “WindServe Marine’s experience with Jones Act vessel operations and full service shipyard fabrication, coupled with their dedication to the future of green energy, make them a great partner as we expand operations along the East Coast.”
The construction of the two DNV GL-classed crew transfer vessels is expected to support about 40 jobs.
Ørsted, the world’s largest offshore wind operator, already runs the 30 MW Block Island Wind Farm, the first commercialscale facility of its kind in the U.S. Its $1 billion Revolution Wind project will see the installation of an additional 700 MW of turbine capacity at a site roughly 20 nm to the east of Block Island, in the state of Rhode Island.
The Ørsted vision is a world that runs entirely on green energy. Ørsted develops, constructs and operates offshore and onshore wind farms, bioenergy plants and innovative waste-to-energy solutions, and provides smart energy products to its customers. Ørsted is headquartered in Fredericia, Denmark and employs 5,600 people. It is the largest energy company in Denmark.
WindServe Marine is an offshore wind support services company, committed to providing excellence in all stages of the offshore wind farm lifecycle and supporting industry stakeholders in project commencement and construction, operations and maintenance, and logistics. WindServe is a part of the Reinauer Group, a privately held group of U.S. companies operating in a variety of marine business lines.