USA: Coastal Carolina University to Get Offshore Wind Survey Vessel

A new vessel, which is worth USD 1.2 million and is primarily purposed to carry out subsea surveying work for the future offshore wind projects in South Carolina, was recently introduced in North Myrtle Beach.

Coastal Carolina University (CCU) will take delivery of the new vessel named ‘Coastal Explorer’ by fall, and it will be revealed to the public in the early winter, Myrtle Beach Online news site informs. 

Paul Gayes, Director for Center for Marine and Wetlands Studies at CCU, said that he has had his eyes on this vessel for about 25 years, because of its capability to do more advanced research work than the current one that the University possesses.

“It’s the kind of vessel that’s being used in the north seas for all the surveys and support of the wind farms there. It’s the design of vessel used for a lot of the shallow geophysical work that we’re talking about,” the news site quotes MrGayes as saying.

 He further explained: “Instrumentation that maps the seafloor for habitat and characteristics of the seafloor, instrumentation into the shallow sub-surface in terms of what the material structures are down there… The design of this vessel can handle all that gear. We can run the seafloor mapping capacities as a suite of instrumentation rather than multiple trips.”

North Myrtle Beach has been pursuing offshore wind development for a while now, and has put 12 wind turbines along its coastline with a plan to put more of them in the sea. The city aims to become a demonstration site for coastal wind technology and to use its advantages later on.

A report published at the end of last year shows that North and South Carolina hold 33% of all offshore wind potential on the East coast.

[mappress]

Offshore WIND Staff, August 9, 2013; Image: Vattenfall