Vole au vent sets off to begin construction of Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind project

Jan De Nul’s jack-up vessel Vole au vent has departed from the Port of Halifax, Canada, with the first batch of turbine components for the Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind (CVOW) demonstration project.

Photos available on social media show the vessel carrying the monopile foundation components destined for the 12 MW project.

Vole au vent started its journey from Halifax on 20 May at around 18:20 local time and is expected to arrive at CVOW on 24 May in the afternoon.

The jack-up will reportedly return to Halifax two more times, to load the turbine towers in the second trip and then to load the nacelles and the blades in the third return.

The turbine components and monopile foundations arrived in Halifax in late April.

CVOW, developed by Ørsted and Dominion Energy, will comprise two Siemens Gamesa 6 MW turbines installed some 27 miles off the coast of Virginia Beach.

The two turbines are expected to provide the operational, weather, and environmental experience needed for the 2.6 GW development in the adjacent 112,800 ha lease site, expected to be operational by 2026.

Subsea 7 recently completed a cable pull-in at Camp Pendelton for the demo project.