Block Island foundations manufacturer appointed

UNITED STATES: Deepwater Wind has contracted Gulf Island Fabrication to construct jacket foundations for its 30MW Block Island demonstration project off the coast of Rhode Island.

by David Weston 13 November 2014

Alstom's 6MW Haliade turbine is installed on a jacket foundation

Gulf Island will manufacture the five jacket structures to support the 6MW Alstom Haliade turbines.

The foundations will be constructed at Gulf Island's Louisiana facility, but some components will be made by Rhode Island business Speciality Diving Services.

Delivery of the 1,500 tonne jacket structures is due to take place in the summer of 2015. Block Island is located five kilometres off the US east coast.

Gulf Island has a strong presence in the Gulf of Mexico where it manufactures units for use in the oil and gas sector.

German firm EEW will support the manufacturing. In February, EEW was contracted to supply the monopile foundations for the 468MW Cape Wind project, located off the coast of Massachusetts.