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Just a few years ago, the US Department of Energy projected that offshore wind farms will soon beat coal and natural gas on the cost of power generation. Too bad US President Donald Trump bullied the US offshore wind industry into a state of near-morbidity. Still, he can’t do anything to stop activity on a global scale. That includes shipyards around the world, which have mobilized to build a new fleet of offshore construction vessels aimed at driving costs down while speeding up deployment.
Offshore Wind And The Service Vessel Difference
When the global offshore wind industry first emerged in the early 2000’s, it relied on construction vessels and equipment commonly used in the oil and gas industry. The practice layered expense and complexity onto wind projects, but that’s all they had at the time. When shipyards began to build specialized vessels designed around the specific needs of offshore wind farms, costs began to come down.
