Great Lakes Inks First Rock Supply Deal For US Offshore Wind Farm

Contracts & Tenders

July 27, 2023, by Adnan Memija

Great Lakes Dredge & Dock Corporation (Great Lakes) has signed the first-ever subcontract for the procurement of rock for a wind farm offshore the US with Carver Sand & Gravel LLC (Carver), a US quarry in the state of New York.

Illustration; Sheringham Shoal offshore wind farm in the UK; Photo source: Equinor

Through this subcontract, Great Lakes will use rock produced in New York to provide scour protection for offshore wind turbine foundations and substations at Equinor and BP’s Empire Wind I and Empire Wind II offshore wind farms.

The rock will be quarried locally, transported to the quayside on the Hudson River, and loaded onto Great Lakes’ rock installation vessel, the Acadia, which will sail to the wind farms to install the rock starting in 2025.

Great Lakes and Carver will be developing the first US rock supply chain for offshore wind, including the quarry producing the rock, the stockpiling, and transportation of the rock to the quayside, the port and loading facilities that will load the rock installation vessel, and other facilities along the Hudson River that will help guide the vessel in the driveway, according to the press release.

“The subcontract between Great Lakes and Carver is a great example of how New York’s offshore wind projects, such as Equinor and bp’s Empire Wind, continue to drive industry firsts with major investments in existing New York businesses and workers that will build the American offshore wind supply chain providing a huge win for all involved”, said Doreen M. Harris, NY State Energy Research & Development Authority, President and CEO.

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In May last year, Equinor and BP picked a consortium between Van Oord and Great Lakes for subsea rock installation works for their offshore wind farms in New York.

According to our previous news, Van Oord plans to deploy its flexible fallpipe vessel Stornes to prepare the seabed by placing filter rock prior to the installation of monopile foundations.

GLDD will then install armour rocks as a stabilisation and protection layer after the monopiles have been installed.

The Empire Wind I wind farm was selected in New York’s first-ever offshore wind solicitation in 2019 alongside Ørsted and Eversource Energy’s Sunrise Wind project.

The Empire Wind II was selected in the state’s offshore wind power solicitation two years later, together with their Beacon Wind 1 project south of Nantucket.

Equinor will be the operator through the development, construction, and operations phases of the projects.

The offshore wind farms will utilise Vestas V236-15.0 MW wind turbines and are expected to play a major role in meeting New York State’s goal of reaching 70 per cent renewable energy by 2030, according to the developers.