Danish offshore wind installation firm Cadeler has signed a firm contract for the deployment of its newbuild offshore wind vessel, the Wind Pace, at an offshore wind farm located in the United States.

This will be the first time Cadeler’s second P-Class newbuild vessel, Wind Pace, will be deployed following its anticipated delivery later in 2025.

The work is scheduled to start in the second quarter of 2025 and the Wind Pace will be committed under this contract until the first quarter of 2026.

The value of the contract to Cadeler is estimated to be between $70 million and $79 million.

To remind, in August 2024, Cadeler took delivery of the P-class jack-up installation vessel, Wind Peak, built at COSCO Shipping Heavy Industry (COSCO) shipyard.

Both Wind Peak and Wind Pace are designed to operate at some of the most difficult sites around the globe and with the most advanced equipment in the industry.

The vessels will offer increased transit capacity, lowering the energy intensity of installation, reducing installation time and thereby lowering total cost of installing offshore wind farms.

With a deck space of 5,600 m2, a payload of over 17,600 tons and main crane capacity of above 2,500 tons at 53 meters, the two new cyber-secure vessels are expected to be ‘very attractive’ to the industry.

The vessels will be able to transport and install seven complete 15 MW turbine sets per load or five sets of 20+ MW turbines, cutting down the number of trips needed for each project, thus accelerating installation speed and minimizing the carbon footprint.