Edison Chouest Offshore (ECO) has confirmed that construction has started on the first Jones Act-compliant windfarm service operations vessel (SOV).
The vessel, which will be named ECO Edison, is being built at ECO's in-house shipyards located in Louisiana, Mississippi, and Florida.
The SOV will be delivered in 2024. Following delivery, it will immediately provide operational support out of Port Jefferson, New York, for Ørsted and Eversource's joint venture offshore wind portfolio, which includes South Fork Wind, Revolution Wind, and Sunrise Wind.
The vessel will be over 260 feet (79 metres) long and capable of housing 60 crewmembers. It will be utilised during the operation and maintenance (O&M) phases of the wind farm projects, serving as an at-sea base of operations to accommodate and transfer technicians, tools, and parts safely to and from individual wind turbine generators.