The US offshore wind industry reached a new milestone as shipbuilder Keppel started construction of the $500m first all-American turbine installation vessel, which will be named Charybdis.

As first reported by Recharge in October, Keppel is building the vessel at its shipyard in Brownsville, Texas, where a keel-laying took place on Wednesday with officials from Dominion Energy, the Virginia utility that’s leading the consortium financing it.

Charybdis – named after a sea monster from Greek mythology – will be among the largest of its kind globally, handling turbines of 12MW and larger when it enters service from 2023, said the shipbuilder.

The vessel will be 144-metres long, use 14,000-tonnes of steel and have berths for 119 people.

Crucially, it will be the first to comply with the Jones Act, which sets strict rules over use of US-flagged and crewed ships for operations in the nation’s waters.

Despite its massive price tag – first revealed by Recharge in September – Charybdis is set to be kept busy for years serving an industry that has obtained commitments from mid-Atlantic and northeastern states to procure about 29GW of offshore wind capacity through to 2035.

Based in Virginia, its duties will include installation of the 15MW Siemens Gamesa turbines at Dominion’s own Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind [CVOW] project that at 2.6GW is the largest planned in US waters.

Dominion CEO Robert Blue said: "This is a monumental step for the offshore wind industry in America.

"Dominion Energy is proud to be leading a consortium of respected industry participants in the construction of the first Jones Act compliant offshore wind turbine installation vessel, which will provide significant American jobs, and provide a reliable, home-grown installation solution with the capacity to handle the next generation of large-scale, highly-efficient turbine technologies."

Wind

It's a monster: work starts on $500m first all-American offshore wind vessel Charybdis