Van Oord, local partner hired for rock installation at Empire Wind

Dutch marine contractor Van Oord on Tuesday said that in a consortium with Great Lakes Dredge & Dock (GLDD) it has been awarded subsea rock installation works for the Empire Wind 1 and 2 offshore wind projects of over 2 GW in the US.

The contract comes from the joint venture between Equinor ASA (NYSE:EQNR) and BP Plc (LON:BP) developing the Empire Wind projects, which are located south of Long Island and will provide power to the state of New York.

Van Oord will prepare the seabed with the placement of filter rock before the installation of monopile foundations, using flexible fallpipe vessel Stornes. Following the monopiles installation, GLDD will install armour rocks as a stabilisation and protection layer. The companies plan to commence work at the wind farm sites in the mid-2020s.

GLDD is currently building its own Jones-Act compliant fallpipe vessel and has access to rocks from domestic quarries, which supports local content in relation to materials and employment.

Recently, Equinor and BP awarded a contract to Maersk Supply Service to use its newbuild wind installation vessel for the installation of the Vestas V236-15MW turbines at Empire Wind 1 and 2.

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