that the Philly Shipyard could become a player in the offshore wind industry emerging off the Eastern seaboard.
The shipyard signed a contract as far back as 2021 to build the Acadia, a 461-foot-long, highly specialized vessel that’s needed to get the skyscraper-high turbines set in the seafloor. A key boost for the shipyard: An old and obscure federal law known as the Jones Act that requires vessels transporting cargo within the U.S. to be built in the U.S. instead of overseas.The Acadia is being built at the Philly Shipyard for the Houston-based Great Lakes Dredge & Dock Corp.
The rock installation will be used to protect and stabilize monopile foundations, electrical substructures, and export cables by the mid-2020s, Great Lakes Dredge & Dock said.Philly Shipyard announced in November 2021 that . The shipyard also said there is the possibility of Great Lakes Dredge & Dock building a second ship at the location.However, the Business Network for Offshore Wind, a nonprofit, educational organization that advocates for offshore wind,Thursday that Great Lake Dredge & Dock was investing $246 million into the Acadia.
Ulstein, a Norwegian/Dutch company, designed the Acadia. The vessel will be able to carry up to 20,000 million metric tons of rock, which it will transport and deposit on the ocean bottom, laying a foundation for the monopiles — the foundations for offshore wind turbines.Great Lake Dredge & Dock says the vessel will boast “state-of-the-art technology, equipment, environmental controls, and automation, and will be built “with best-in-class safety, environmental, and emissions standards.