Tag Archives: turbine installation vessels

How offshore wind developers are working around the Jones Act

The U.S. is going to need between four and six gigantic wind turbine installation vessels to support President Joe Biden’s 30 gigawatt-by-2030 offshore wind goal, according to a new Energy Department national lab-led report out this week. It currently has zero finished vessels that comply with the Jones Act, which requires that vessels carrying shipments between points in the United States be owned and crewed by U.S. citizens, registered under the U.S. flag, and built in the United States. Project developers have therefore used, or are planning to use, Jones Act-compliant “feeder” barges to transport wind components from domestic ports out to the project site, where the components are then transferred to a foreign-flagged vessel capable of installing them. >click to read< 14:21