Empire Offshore Wind, a joint venture between Equinor and bp, has awarded a long-term service operations vessel charter agreement to US marine transportation provider, Edison Chouest Offshore (ECO).
The vessel will accommodate up to 60 wind turbine technicians and will be utilised for the operations and maintenance of the Empire Wind 1 and Empire Wind 2 offshore wind farms. The charter agreement has a fixed period of 10 years, with commencement in the mid-2020s. The US-flagged vessel will be Jones Act compliant and have its home port at the South Brooklyn Marine Terminal (SBMT) in New York. The plug-in hybrid vessel will be capable of sailing on battery power for portions of the route. The SOV will sail into the port of SBMT on battery power, recharge the battery using shore power and sail out of New York Harbor. The hybrid vessel is certified to “tier 4 emissions standards”, reaching the highest standard for marine applications.