First American-Built Offshore Wind Service Operations Vessel Christened At Port Of New Orleans

America’s offshore wind energy supply chain has reached a significant milestone with the christening of the first American-built, crewed, and owned offshore wind service operations vessel.

This vessel will play an essential role in enabling domestic energy production and bolstering America’s energy independence.

The ECO EDISON, christened officially on Saturday by Jennifer Scalise at the Port of New Orleans, is the first offshore US-flagged wind SOV.

An instance of the significant financial investments into the US ports, maritime actions, manufacturing, domestic energy, and workforce by Ørsted, the vessel will play a crucial part in the operation and the maintenance of Eversource’s South Fork Wind and Ørsted, Revolution Wind and Sunrise Wind undertakings.

Ørsted’s investment in ECO EDISON demonstrates the firm’s dedication to building an offshore domestic energy supply chain.

The ECO EDISON was created by over 600 workers across almost one million work hours at ECO in-house shipyards based in Louisiana and Florida.

The vessel’s components were sourced from 34 states, from Alabama to West Virginia.

Ørsted’s undertakings are creating jobs and steering economic development across dozens of states, with the Gulf of Mexico region playing a central role.

Many Gulf Coast firms, including firms like ECO, which has expertise in offshore energy, are using their vast experiences from different ocean-based industries in the new energy sector.

The 262-foot state-of-the-art long-live on ECO EDISON will serve as a floating, year-round home base for 60 of the first US offshore wind turbine technicians.

These technicians will work at sea over the life of the wind farms, servicing and maintaining the wind turbines.

The Gulf Coast area is playing a vital role in the thriving US offshore wind supply chain, using many decades of experience for delivering improved homegrown American energy and serving as an example of Ørsted’s over $20 billion of investments into the US, claimed David Hardy, the CEO and Group EVP Americas at Ørsted.

Edison Chouest delivered the milestone of building the first US-made service operations vessel.

The team cannot wait to put her in service with top-notch technologies and features to maximize comfort at sea.

The firm is grateful to Leader Scalise, his wife Jennifer, and Congressman Carter for attending the festivities this weekend to prepare the ECO EDISON for her work in advancing US energy.

The firm is proud that its engineers, shipyards, and over 600 shipbuilders have delivered a US-first vessel that is going to support offshore wind energy for many years to come for the partners at Ørsted, mentioned Gary Chouest, the President of Edison Chouest Offshore.

As several vessels supported building the first-ever utility-scale offshore wind farm, the South Fork Wind Farm will be ECO EDISON, leading the way as this first-ever US-made offshore wind SOV.

Two advanced Cat® 3512E engines, supplied by the Houston-based firm Caterpillar Marine, will enable the ECO EDISON, highlighting the huge opportunity offshore wind offers US manufacturers and shipyards.

Caterpillar Marine is devoted to helping customers reach the most challenging goals and is proud to offer the power for this first US-built offshore wind SOV.

The US EPA Tier 4 certified Cat 3512E engines are constructed with the highest durability.

They are prepared to be dual-fuel methanol transformed in the future, making sure that Ørsted can satisfy their demands today and into the future, said Brad Johnson, Vice President and General Manager of Caterpillar Marine.

The ECO EDISON’s exclusive-purpose design focused on passenger safety and comfort, enhanced manoeuvrability, extended offshore endurance and lowered emissions.

It includes special features like a “walk to work” motion-compensated gangway, which permits technicians to access the wind turbines safely.

A smaller “daughter” craft can efficiently be deployed to manoeuvre crew members across the wind farms.

Reference: Business Wire

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Source: Maritime Shipping News