The installation vessel of DP3 known as Orion which is under the ownership of the Belgian construction specialist known as DEME has just recently sailed out of Invergordon in Scotland and is now headed to the United States of America, whereby it will be involved in the installation of the monopile foundations at the Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind (CVOW) project.
On the 15th of April, DEME made a major announcement stating that Orion had finished the monopole installation works at the Scottish wind farm known as Moray West and had started its journey across the Atlantic Ocean heading back to the United States to commence its next project in Virginia. This vessel has already foreseen deployment in the offshore wind market of the United States, having done installation works on the offshore substation and monopolies located on the Vineyard 1 windfarm that is located off Massachusetts.
With reference to the data of AIS that is available online, Orion departed from the Port of Invergordon on the morning of 15th April and is expected to arrive at the Port of Halifax on April 24th. From here, Orion is expected to arrive at the Port of Norfolk in Virginia. It id expected to commence the preparations for the installation works of a total of 176 monopolies at the wind farm project site which is located just approximately 27 miles from the coast of Virginia.
Capacity of the Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind Project
The project has a capacity of 2.6GW. DEME secured the work on the wind farm project when dominion chose the consortium of DEME-Prysmian to serve as the Balance of Plant (BOP) contractor that was tasked with the transportation works and also the installation works of the foundations and even the substations, and also the EPCI services of the inter-array and the export cables that would be at the Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind, which upon completion is set to become the biggest commercial offshore windfarm in the United States.
During the installation works of the Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind, Orion will put to use the same equipment and even the vessel that conducted works on the Scottish offshore windfarm which has a capacity of 882MW.
Technology that will be Incorporated at the Windfarm
“A combination of technologies that will entail the Vibro Hammer and the Impact Hammer will be incorporated in the Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind project, which will also be in combination of highly advanced noise mitigation technologies that will protect the marine mammals,” stated Jan Klaasen, who holds the position of Busines Unit Director Americas at DEME.
The production of the monopolies for this 2.6GW offshore wind farm are being done by the EEW SPC, which had already sent the first batch in the month of September in the year 2023 from its production unit in Rostock which is in Germany, to the Port of Virginia’s Portsmouth Marine Terminal. The delivery works of the 176 transition pieces (TPs) will be done by the Bladt Industries that are based in Europe, Denmark.
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