'Got to do it right from day one': monopile-maker EEW positions for US offshore wind bonanza
German contractor expects first test sections to arrive Friday at under-construction $300m Paulsboro, New Jersey facility, with large orders for trio of giant eastern seaboard projects in its scopes
German steel manufacturer EEW is waiting on first sections of offshore wind turbine monopile foundation that will be used for “training and process verification” at its new $300m US east coast facility as the contractor ramps up its plans for the regional play.
The EEW facility represents the largest single investment made so far into the US offshore wind supply chain and is among the early-movers expected to be ready for manufacturing start-up by next year.
“If you were here a year ago, this was just dirt,” EEW American Offshore Structures CEO Lee Laurendeau said on a site tour. “This whole thing has gone up in the last calendar year.”
The facility, which will have an output of 100 monopiles a year, is contracted to supply three projects that already have power offtake agreements with the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities: the 1.1GW Ocean Wind 1 being developed by Denmark’s Orsted and US utility PSEG, Orsted’s 1.14GW Ocean Wind 2 , and the 1.5GW Atlantic Shores being built by a joint venture between Shell and EDF.
Despite progress on the EEW facility – now 95% complete – the site will rely on imported monopile segments as well as European training and manpower in the near- to medium-term.
“We’ve got to do it right from day one, so we have to make sure all of that experience and learning is right here in the US,” said Laurendeau.
Developer US Wind has also pledged to construct a monopile manufacturing facility at its Tradepoint Atlantic facility in Maryland, the former site of Bethlehem Steel's Sparrows Point steel mill, once the largest in the world. The plant will provide monopiles for developer’s 270MW MarWin and 808MW Momentum Wind projects.
During phase one, EEW’s Paulsboro plant will provide 91 monopiles to Ocean Wind 1, which is counting on approval from the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM), the regulator of development in federal waters, in 2023 for its construction and operations plan, with construction set to start in later that year.
Laurendeau said that the phase two expansion of the facility, which will start this summer and is expected to be complete by 2024, will enable the site to manufacture monopiles all the way through from steel plates to finished components. The first all-US monopiles will be delivered for the Atlantic Shores project, expected to begin construction in 2024, which has ordered 108 units.
Beyond these lead-off projects, EEW expects to leverage its location to serve projects along the entire eastern seaboard.
“We have access to the deepwater, calm-water port of Paulsboro and are really central to all the projects up and down the east coast, from Massachusetts to South Carolina,” Laurendeau said.
The visit to the EEW site was sponsored by New Jersey Economic Development Authority in coordination with the Business Network for Offshore Wind, which is hosting its annual International Partnering Forum this year in Atlantic City.
(Copyright)