Marmen Welcon LLC, a joint venture between two manufacturers of onshore and offshore wind towers, has concluded a strategic alliance with Smulders, a European international steel construction company, for the manufacturing of transition pieces for offshore wind turbines for the U.S. market at the Port of Albany facility.
This agreement accelerates the growth of the U.S. offshore wind supply chain by bringing Smulders’ expertise to the highly automated Marmen Welcon facility, soon to be built at the Port of Albany, N.Y., the largest inland port in the Northeastern U.S. Transition pieces, made up of heavy steel fabrication, are the lower support structures beneath offshore wind towers that connect the tower to the foundation.
The strategic alliance with Smulders supports the offshore wind investment announced earlier this year by Marmen and Welcon, in partnership with the Port of Albany and Equinor, an energy company. The port development is scheduled to begin later in 2021, and offshore wind towers are scheduled to begin production at the end of 2023.
“Smulders is clearly the right partner for Marmen Welcon, with its track record of over 2,000 transition pieces manufactured at its facilities located in Europe,” says Patrick Pellerin, president of Marmen. “The strategic partnership will allow for knowledge transfer and enhance our manufacturing capabilities for transition piece production in our future Port of Albany facility.”
“With this announcement, offshore wind developers now have the opportunity to source all of their large steel-fabricated components – foundations, transition pieces and towers – in the U.S., thanks to our new facility,” states Carsten Pedersen, chairman of Welcon.
“With already more than 20 years of offshore wind experience in the European market, we are looking forward to sharing our expertise in the manufacturing of transition pieces with Marmen Welcon and contribute to the development of a sustainable supply chain for the upcoming U.S. offshore wind market,” adds Raf Iemants, managing director of Smulders.
