VIDEO: Mayflower Wind plans to build battery-hybrid CTV at Gladding-Hearn
Written by Nick BlenkeyMayflower Wind reports that it has signed an agreement with Gladding-Hearn Shipbuilding, Duclos Corporation, Somerset, Mass., for the specification, design, and manufacture of an industry-leading, Jones Act-compliant, hybrid battery diesel-electric crew transfer vessel. Other parties to the agreement include include Incat Crowther, BAR Technologies, Corvus Energy and ABS.
The project will proceed if Mayflower, a 50/50 joint venture between Shell New Energies US LLC and Ocean Winds, is awarded a contract under the latest Massachusetts procurement for offshore wind.
The design utilizes technologies that will provide significant fuel savings and emissions reductions, including the use of lithium-Ion battery energy storage to create a hybrid vessel that will be a bridge to full electrification.
“Mayflower Wind aims to develop the most innovative, fuel-efficient CTV built in the United States,” said Michael Brown, CEO of Mayflower Wind. “Ensuring that this vessel is constructed at a shipyard in Somerset is a big boost to the Massachusetts maritime economy and launches this shipyard toward a new and growing market.”
Peter Duclos, president of Gladding-Hearn said this project has the potential to create new jobs at his company over the next 24-36 months. “We are excited about the possibility of working with Mayflower Wind,” he said. “They want to raise the bar of CTV design and have assembled an experienced team to do just that.”
Duclos noted that his firm has seen the promise of the offshore wind market over the past 10 plus years and that the timing of this opportunity is perfect given the pandemic’s negative effect on the new vessel construction market.
“With our location and experienced team at Gladding-Hearn, we are ready to serve the offshore wind market. We’ve been working to make it happen since the early days of Cape Wind. We’re glad to finally see it come to fruition with Mayflower Wind,” Duclos added.
Brown noted that by encouraging local shipyards such as Gladding-Hearn to establish themselves as shipbuilders for the offshore wind industry, Mayflower Wind is working to foster a local maritime supply chain.
“This is not just an agreement with a local shipyard – it is integration of that shipyard into a collaboration with the most sophisticated and capable technology providers and designers in the world, moving this key local supplier to the forefront of its industry and setting them in a position to compete successfully on the global stage,” he said
Incat Crowther will design the vessel, which will be based upon one of its industry leading CTVs already in service in Europe and customized to suit local requirements. ABS will provide design review for Approval In Principle, verification of applicable rules, standards and USCG and classification of the CTV. BAR Technologies will provide the vessel with its foil optimized stability system for fuel savings and reduced vertical accelerations for improved safety and comfort, as well as its advanced computational fluid dynamics modeling and simulation that can optimize the hull and foils to reduce drag and increase fuel efficiency.
Corvus will supply the vessel’s onboard battery energy storage solution to enable efficient lower emissions operations.
“Corvus ESS have multiple possibilities of installation which ensures the optimal hybrid solution for maximum emission savings,” said Ronald Hansen SVP Ship Solutions of Corvus Energy. “Moreover, batteries are safer and quieter for the crew, and save both fuel and maintenance costs for the owners.”
Design of the vessel would occur during 2022-2023, setting the stage for building and launching the hybrid CTV in the mid 2020s, timing that would fit well with the start of operation of wind turbines by Mayflower Wind.