Empire Offshore Wind, a joint venture between Equinor and bp, has chosen Van Oord and Great Lakes Dredge & Dock (GLDD) as main contractors for subsea rock installation works related to the development of Empire Wind I and II.
This offshore wind project, which is located off the coast of the United States, is a significant step toward providing renewable energy to the state of New York.
The scope of Van Oord‘s work includes filter rock placement on the seabed prior to the installation of monopile foundations. The flexible fallpipe vessel Stornes will carry out this task. After the monopiles have been installed, GLDD will install armour rocks as a stabilization and protection layer. The Empire Wind I and II sites are expected to begin operations in the mid-2020s, according to the consortium.
Empire I and Empire II wind farms will be built 32 kilometres south of Long Island. It will have up to 174 wind turbines with a total installed capacity of about 2 gigawatts when finished. The amount of renewable energy generated is enough to power approximately 1 million households in New York.
Image source: Van Oord
