The Port of Cromarty Firth in Cromarty.
Photographer: Matthew Lloyd/BloombergClimate Changed
Offshore Wind Will Need Bigger Boats. Much Bigger Boats
Only about a dozen ships in the world can install a wind turbine. A shortage is looming—and shipowners don’t know how big the next generation of vessels has to be.
How do you install a wind turbine almost the size of the Chrysler building in the open ocean? Just get a boat with deck space larger than a football field and a crane that can lift the weight of 1,100 Chevy Suburban SUVs.
Those specialist ships are scarce, numbering about a dozen in the world. And at a cost of more than $300 million, they each need to be capable of hoisting generators the size of shipping containers atop steel towers hundreds of feet tall.