Prysmian’s Monna Lisa Picks Up Its First Cable for Largest US Offshore Wind Farm-To-Be

April 21, 2025, by Nadja Skopljak

Prysmian’s new cable laying vessel (CLV) Monna Lisa has been loaded for the first time with submarine cable, destined for what will become the largest US offshore wind farm once operational.

Prysmian reported two days ago that the submarine cable for Dominion Energy’s Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind (CVOW) project was being loaded on Monna Lisa at the Arco Felice plant in Italy.

The keel-laying ceremony for Monna Lisa, a sister vessel to Leonardo da Vinci, was held in Tulcea, Romania, in April 2023 to mark the start of construction, which took around 24 months. VARD launched the 171-metre vessel at the beginning of June 2024, after completing steel cutting, keel laying, generator installation, and hull erection.

The CLV then began its journey of 4,000 nautical miles from Romania to Norway, towed down the Danube River, across the Mediterranean Sea, and up the coast of Portugal and Spain to VARD’s shipyard in Søvik to undertake final fit-out and trials.

Prysmian reported on February 6 that the vessel had joined its fleet.

To remind, Dominion Energy selected the consortium of DEME Group and Prysmian as the Balance of Plant (BoP) contractors for the transportation and installation of the foundations and the substations and the engineering, procurement, construction, and installation (EPCI) services for the inter-array and export cables for the CVOW project.

Prysmian is providing three three-core 220 kV HVAC export cables measuring approximately 62 kilometres each, with XLPE insulation and single-wire armouring, for a total of approximately 560 kilometres, while DEME is in charge of overseeing the complete offshore installation works for the foundations, substations, infield cables, and part of the export cables.

DEME laid the first export cable using its cable installation vessel Living Stone in September 2024.

The 2.6 GW CVOW project will feature 176 Siemens Gamesa 14 MW wind turbines and will become the biggest US offshore wind farm once in operation.

In February, Dominion Energy revealed that the wind farm was approximately 50 per cent complete and remains on track for on-time completion at the end of 2026.