NED-Project, a Poland-headquartered naval architecture and ship design company with an office in the US, has developed a new wind turbine installation vessel (WTIV), which features a hydrogen-ready set-up and has the capability to install 15-20 MW wind turbines as well as to load and transport monopiles vertically.

The vessel design, NP20000X ULAM, which is intended to be Jones Act-compliant, has been awarded Approval in Principle (AIP) by the American Bureau of Shipping (ABS).

The design is hydrogen-ready with the engine rooms able to be converted into fuel cell compartments accommodating polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells, making it possible to rely solely on liquefied hydrogen (LH2) to meet its energy demands.

The vessel features an 8,000 square-metre deck on which monopiles could be loaded vertically, eliminating the need to rotate them to the vertical position at sea. The NP20000X ULAM design also incorporates a leg-encircling heavy cargo crane with a working load of 3,500 tonnes capable of handling turbines of 240-metre rotor diameter and 150-metre tower height.

NED-Project Inc. is working with GPZ Energy to develop ULAM WTIV projects for the US market.

The first Jones Act-compliant WTIV set to serve the US market is Dominion Energy’s Charybdis, also being built to ABS Class. The vessel is expected to be sea-ready by late 2023 and will first be deployed out of New London harbor in Connecticut to support the construction of Revolution Wind and Sunrise Wind, both under joint development by Ørsted and Eversource.

The two offshore wind developers have also already chartered the first US Service Operations Vessel (SOV), also Jones Act-compliant and classified by ABS, which will be operated by Edison Chouest Offshore (ECO).