Offshore Wind Farms

OHT looking to take a slice, this will make the enablers almost an entirely Eurocentric operation

https://subseaworldnews.com/2018/07/16/oht-orders-owf-foundation-installation-vessel-from-cmhi/?uid=49915

Work has started at the proposed offshore wind farm project Vineyard Wind off Martha’s Vineyard.
The geotechnical vessel Dina Polaris has just completed work there:


(She left from NYC 09.Aug and is now in Nassau, Bahamas)

Floating wind farm to supply power to two oil and gas fields in Norway:

Not offshore but …

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Is Offshore Wind the salvation for the work boat industry in the US?:

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I am 100% pro-offshore and onshore wind power but this article is really sloppy. There are no offshore wind farms currently under construction around India, which has the most progressive energy police of the subcontinent countries. I certainly wouldn’t describe SE Asia as booming, Vietnam has one. Taiwan, if you want to call that SE Asia, has one and is building ambitiously. China has a bunch of nearshore ones and is building their first real far offshore farms now. “Zentech” is from what I can tell a completely fraudulent operation that has made the same pathetic announcement of having “the first Jones Act-compliant offshore wind construction vessel” which is just yet another tug and barge- a repurposed barge at that- “ready by the end of this year”, a claim they’ve made for like three years straight now.

The only state that has approached this with any kind of coherent leadership is Massachusetts. New Jersey was sabotaged by Christie and is way behind, Maryland is plagued by Ocean City NIMBYs, Connecticut doesn’t have offshore ocean access, Rhode Island is small and broke, ditto Delaware, and New York has such a corrupt and sclerotic government and land use regime, based on random hand-outs to “green” projects, that you can bet that this South Fork farm will be the last one that gets built for a while. Meanwhile these states are all gleefully signing deals for Pennsylvania natural gas that is seriously damaging the economics of offshore wind electricity.

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Another specialised tool used in the wind farm industry:

Offshore Wind Farms can produce more than just electric power:

GE is really stepping up their effort to be a leader in the European Offshore Wind industry. They are developing the biggest wind mills in the world so far at the production facilities they acquired in France:


Question is of course if the “bigger is better” mantra prove to be true for ever bigger turbines, which requires stronger support structures and better control system to withstand the forces generated in strong wind.

For this GE has taken over a small Norwegian company that design simple and reliable drive trains and controls for wind mills:
https://www.reliableplant.com/Read/19994/acquisition-helps-ge-energy-exp-in-offshore-wind-sector.

Will they eventually produce any of this in the US??
That depends on development of a local market and cost of production I would think.

And the projected lifespan is?

Here is one estimate:

They’ll have to produce them in the US in order to get the US taxpayer subsidies and tax breaks that offshore wind requires. We are not going to let offshore wind become another US welfare program for Europe.

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interestingly nature has taken advantage of this already. Don’t know if there is comprehensive research yet https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/08/12/many-jellyfish-sea-blame-wind-farms-gas-platforms/

A new heavy lift vessel under construction for OHT will combine the ability to transport and position heavy substructures for offshore wind farms, while also retain the ability to load floating cargo by flo/flo:

Petrobras and Equinor in partnership for future wind farms offshore Brasil:

Someone is daring enough to order the first SOV to be Jones Act compliant:

Will your future workplace look like one of these??:

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And the US Congress managed to agree on something; identifying ports with potential to support offshore wind farm development:

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I have to say that bow looks pretty strange with the bridge aft.

I agree, strange but maybe functional, practical and efficient. You want beauty, buy a yacht. (at least some of those are beautiful)

Someone is thinking new, not recycling old ideas:
https://www.offshorewind.biz/2018/10/15/vuyk-floats-offshore-port-concept/