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MARINE | Offshore wind In association with Holland & Knight LLP
US offshore wind growth brings risk and opportunity Gerald Morrissey (left) and Vincent Foley (right), Partners in the Maritime Practice Group of the US based Holland & Knight LLP, discuss the marine risk and insurance implications from a legal perspective of the projected growth in US offshore wind farm construction vessels There has been an increase in news and commentary about the vessels needed for construction and operation of US offshore wind farms that is driven by the 16 active leases on the US East coast and support for the ambitious 30 giga-watt by 2030 goals advanced by President Biden. A great deal of expertise and practices developed for European offshore wind through the last 20 years is being imparted to development of projects in the US. But, there are many issues and applications in the US that are new and/or different.
US-SPECIFIC IMPLICATIONS A good deal of commentary has touched on the role that the Jones Act may have on the availability of vessels for projects in the US. Most commonly, the discussion concerns the The Marine Insurer Americas Edition | June 2021
requirements to use US “coastwise qualified” vessels for offshore wind projects (e.g., because of the Jones Act, and Passenger Vessel Services Act, to name two relevant statutes); concerns about availability of coastwise qualified vessels; and, ultimately, concerns about the relative cost of building coastwise qualified vessels. More in-depth analysis points out that, while employing a foreign-flagged turbine installation vessel (TIV) in conjunction with coastwise qualified feeder vessels can comply with Jones Act requirements, using a coastwise qualified TIV would be operationally more efficient and, theoretically, more cost effective. While marine risk is quite logically an implicit facet of these efficiency and cost considerations, the impact of using a US coastwise qualified TIV on marine risk exposure has not received much specific attention. As utility scale US offshore wind comes closer to fruition,
