East coast wind energy, what does it mean for us?

[QUOTE=Irish Pennant;183860]Couple of good links if you are feeling squirrelly. Unfortunately you can’t see the turbines from Dead Eye Dick’s.

http://fredolsen-energy.com/the-bold-tern-awarded-u-s-installation-contract-with-deepwater-wind?WAF_IsPreview=true

http://www.atlanticwindtransfers.com[/QUOTE]

You mean to tell me that they are not going to bring equipment from the GOM to do the job of installing these things??
How can you justify bringing the Brave Tern all the way across the Atlantic and back for a single little job of installing 5 wind turbines, when there are dozens of lift boats sitting idle in the Bayous?

On top of that they want to build personnel transfer boats to service these wind turbines. Why not modify a couple of Crew boats of the tried and tested type used in the GOM??

Ooops, I didn’t mean to be sarcastic, negative, or anti-American.

Put a million of them wind-mill things right off Martha’s Vinyard and block island so all the yank libtards wake up in the morning and see the wonderful sunrise through spinning blades…just be sure they pay for the view, too.

ButtHurt
An inappropriately strong negative emotional response from a perceived personal insult. Characterized by strong feelings of shame. Frequently associated with a cessation of communication and overt hostility towards the “aggressor.”

Don’t get so butthurt :slight_smile:

Hey as a Yankee I’m all for this plan. Clean energy! Sounds good to me. We won’t be needing GOM crew boats though. We already have the equipment necessary for crew transfers in that area, especially if we’re talking about within sight of land.

Not to rub it in, but the type of vessels needed for [U]cost efficient[/U] installation of cables and other infrastructure for Offshore Wind Farms are a lot more sophisticated than what is available in the GOM (probably on the East coast as well) at the moment.
Here is the latest Cable Layer for HV cables in Europe: http://www.siemoffshorecontractors.com/en/news/cable-lay-vessel-siem-aimery-christened

Can it be done by a placing cable laying equipment on a OSV, or even a barge?? Yes it probably can, but it would be a lot riskier and less efficient, especially off the NE Coast.

It is interesting to see the interaction between vessels to do this work: http://subseaworldnews.com/2015/04/14/watch-siem-offshore-contractors-cable-lay-ops/

Don’t be surprised if you see these two vessels in US waters soon.

A Rhode Island Company has already built a specialized wind farm crew change/mini supply vessel at an RI shipyard for the Block Island project:

http://www.atlanticwindtransfers.com/#!careers/c6gz

http://www.windpowerengineering.com/featured/business-news-projects/atlantic-pioneer-gets-work-block-island/

Weeks Marine has been doing a lot of the construction with their equipment…Miller’s launch had been doing crew changes with their launch boats until the new jet boat went into service.

They have some cable lay barge they frankensteined for the job. They’ll build specialized vessels like they did for the support vessel when they’re practical to do so. In this case it’s only 5 turbines and maybe a few miles of cable if I remember correctly. Problem still is resistance to building these projects.

The second hull has arrived at Ulstein yard to become a Wind Farm Support Vessel, just days after the first one was launched:

This will also be the 100th vessel with the copyrighted Ulstein X-Bow and the 2nd with X-Stern.
If you haven’t yet, you may as well get used to the sight of these vessels, also in the GOM and beyond.

PS> More 100 facts; Next year it will be 100th Anniversary for Ulstein Yard, the forerunner to today’s Ulstein Group. The same year the X-Bow design will appear on the new NOK 100.- bills.

Ulstein is really getting into the Wind Farm business: http://ulstein.com/news/2016/introduces-high-capacity-high-efficiency-cable-lay-vessel

It looks like wind is a popular subject at this year’s OTC in Houston: http://globalspeaktranslations.com/otc-2016-d5-disruptive-offshore-technologies/

Is it time to change tack??

Here’s the cable barge, sorry for the crappy cell phone pic.

http://imgur.com/ZJYhD4X

Hmm the img tags aren’t working.

[QUOTE=Tugboater203;184092]Here’s the cable barge, sorry for the crappy cell phone pic.

http://imgur.com/ZJYhD4X

Hmm the img tags aren’t working.[/QUOTE]

Hope they can get the job done cheaply but safely and on time with that one.

The Ulstein built Wind Farm Support Vessel Windea La Cour has proved it mantle in the North Sea winter and received an award for efficiency and innovation: http://www.osjonline.com/news/view,speciallyshaped-ship-results-in-operational-efficiencies_47123.htm#.WOCvkEZ1nU8.linkedin

Of course you don’t need anything like this in the US since there are only one small Offshore Wind Farm yet. You got coal, which is cheaper, so no need for more to spoil the view of the horizon for rich folks.

If it should become a need, someone will take a 20 - 30 year old OSV from the surplus fleet in the GoM, throw some port-a-camps on deck and use a FRC for personnel transfer. No need for all this sophisticated foreign sh*t.

Here’s a little Leftest Libtard Math for you. Electric cars use ~.5 kWh/mi. Home built solar can be done for $1.50 watt. The average car in the US averages 35 miles per day. So, 35*.5=17.5 kWh-day. Average sun hours here in sunny Cali is 6 hrs/day. This means that a ~3kw array will cover the average day’s driving. 3kw setup ~$4500. At $2 bucks a gallon that makes for 2,250 gallons of gas. At 20 mpg that’s 45,000 miles, or ~1.28 years worth of gas… Solar panels are guaranteed for 20 years ± . So, in a basic Libtard Math way, if you pay the equivalent of a year and a quarter’s worth of gas in advance, you get the next 18.72 years FOR FREE!

Nice Math, but what has it got to do with Offshore Wind Energy development on the East Coast?

The short answer to OP’s question is “not much”… There’s a lot of barren, windy land in the interior of the U.S…
Onshore wind is just beginning to beat Natgas and coal, LCOE, AND is still falling. Google has put money into developing an HVDC backbone…

http://atlanticwindconnection.com/awc-projects/atlantic-wind-connection

Cheers,

Crisp

Oh yes it is coming and foreign companies will do most of the work, using Americans where possible.

The reason why offshore wind beats onshore wind is a given:

No, foreign companies will not be doing most of the work. Wind power is a government and utility rate-payer subsidized activity. We will not be subsidizing foreign companies to build it. With the exception of a few foreign technical specialists, all of the work will be done by Americans. There is no hurry. Wind farm development will move slowly enough that we will have plenty of time to build whatever is needed and learn how to do the work.

It is mostly foreign companies bidding for offshore wind farm sites in the US, both on the east and west coast and off Hawaii. They will bring with them technology and equipment from abroad to develop the facilities, until such time as these are available locally.

By employing American personnel where possible there will be a transfer of knowledge and technology, which is good for the US and for the future of the Offshore Wind Energy in America.

This is very much the same way as the Offshore Oil & Gas industry worked in the 1970’s/80’s, where American companies brought with them their drilling and production technology as they spread their wings around the world.

I’m guessing that when the frackers get the offshore oil companies hungry enough they’re going to look around for a similar job. “Hmmm, we know how to deal with big steel things in saltwater, maybe a few thousand windmill installs will get us through the lull”. They push the politicians, politicians push the agenda, and the work begins in earnest. Shipyards start to notice that the Statoil Windfloat is a pretty simple thing to build, and start bidding on contracts. Foundries and machine shops do the same thing. Economies of scale cut the cost by half or more. Pretty soon the Oil patch people hate the smell of oil.

GOMers go Green.

Long live Uno Lamm!

Cheers,

Crisp

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https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/us-offshore-wind-farms-constructed-oil-gas-experts-jennifer-runyon

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