The United States’ first Jones Act-compliant offshore wind turbine installation vessel (WTIV), Charybdis , has been launched to water at Seatrium AmFELS shipyard in Brownsville, Texas.
The vessel, which will be operated by Dominion Energy’s subsidiary Blue Ocean Energy Marine, was launched after the welding of the hull and the commissioning of the vessel’s four legs and related jacking system were completed.
Dominion Energy says there is no change to the vessel’s timeline, which supports the current construction schedule for the 2.6 GW Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind (CVOW) project, where Charybdis will be installing the wind turbines.
Besides Dominion’s own offshore wind project, the WTIV also secured work on the Revolution Wind and Sunrise Wind offshore wind farms with Ørsted and Eversource in 2021.
As reported in November last year, Dominion Energy said the WTIV would be completed later than planned, with an expected delivery in late 2024 or early 2025. The vessel was originally scheduled to enter into service by the end of 2023.
According to Dominion Energy, Seatrium is building the vessel using domestically sourced steel, with the hull and other infrastructure fabricated with more than 14,000 tons of domestic steel, of which nearly 10,000 tons were sourced from Alabama, West Virginia and North Carolina suppliers.
At peak construction, over 1,200 workers were employed on the project, Dominion Energy says.
Once complete, the home port for Charybdis will be Hampton Roads, one of the US offshore wind installation ports.
The 472-foot (approx. 144 metres) Charybdis will be equipped to install wind turbines with a capacity of 12+ MW and will be able to accommodate up to 119 people on board.