Wind

First US-made offshore wind installation vessel Charybdis delayed amid spiralling costs

Nation's only Jones Act-compliant WTIV owned by Dominion will miss its debut for Orsted-Eversource's Revolution Wind build out

An artist's rendering shows Dominion Energy's newbuilding wind turbine installation vessel Charybdis. The WTIV is under construction at Keppel AmFELS in Texas.
An artist's rendering shows Dominion Energy's newbuilding wind turbine installation vessel Charybdis. The WTIV is under construction at Keppel AmFELS in Texas.Foto: Dominion Energy
Dominion Energy reported spiralling costs and delays for the Charybdis, the first US-made wind turbine installation vessel (WTIV) under construction in Galveston, Texas.

In its second quarter filing this month with the US Securities and Exchange Commission, the Virginia-based utility noted that costs for the vessel being constructed by Keppel AmFELS have risen to $625m, a sharp uptick from its reported $500m price tag in 2020 when it was commissioned.

It will also be delivered in late 2024 or early 2025, at least eight months behind schedule but still “well in advance of the need to support the CVOW [Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind project] construction schedule,” Dominion spokesman Jeremy Slayton told Recharge.

Slayton said: “There has been no change to the construction cost of the vessel,” despite inflation and supply chain turmoil that has roiled the global offshore wind industry.

Instead, “the term of the financing lease was extended, resulting in an increase in total project cost, inclusive of financing costs,” he said, without elaborating.

Dominion commissioned the Charybdis to comply with the Jones Act, which forbids foreign-flagged vessels from calling in at consecutive US ports or points on the outer continental shelf, including offshore wind turbine sites.
As the US lacks WTIVs beyond the Charybdis, the sector will rely on foreign-flagged vessels that must remain at sea and supplied with components by feeder barges, generally considered a costlier, slower, and riskier solution.

High shipbuilding costs and lack of shipyard capacity have deterred investors from domestically built WTIVs.

In 2021, Monaco-headquartered maritime firm Eneti pulled out of a proposal to build two WTIV in the US in favour of South Korean shipbuilder Daewoo for $330m each.

Danish shipper Maersk has likewise proposed a new WTIV for the US market but built in Singapore by Seatrium that would require feeder barges.

Missed Revolution

The delay will see the WTIV miss its first outing for installation of Orsted-Eversource’s 704MW Revolution Wind project.

The WTIV was slated for at-sea installation of Orsted-Eversource’s Revolution and 920MW Sunrise Wind arrays before moving on to CVOW in 2025.

Revolution last Tuesday received its record of decision (ROD) this week and will begin onshore construction in the coming weeks for its onshore landing point at North Kingston, Rhode Island.
“We have been and continue to work closely with Dominion regarding the schedule for delivery of the Charybdis,” Ryan Ferguson, communications adviser for Orsted Americas region, told Recharge.

Sources indicate that Orsted is now looking for alternative solutions for the installation of Revolution’s 64 11MW Siemens Gamesa turbines.

Despite the setback, Ferguson said: “Both Revolution Wind and Sunrise Wind remain on schedule to begin operations in 2025.”

“We remain committed to building and utilising an American maritime industry, including Jones Act-compliant vessels as well as crews,” he added.

Supply of offshore wind vessels is a global problem amid an “arms race” among turbine OEMs for ever-larger models, according to research analytics firm Wood Mackenzie in a recent brief.

The firm said that current generation turbines, including GE Renewables 13.7MW Haliade-X being installed in the UK’s Dogger Bank and at US’ Vineyard Wind, are so large they have “rendered obsolete some elements of the supply chain”, including WTIVs.

This has resulted in a capacity shortfall that will require some $15bn to overcome.

The firm is calling for a cap on turbine size for at least 10 years to give investors in WTIVs and other segments of the supply chain confidence that they can make a return on investment.

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Published 24 August 2023, 18:30Updated 29 August 2023, 19:11
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