Ocean Winds’ Moray West offshore wind farm in Scotland has delivered first power from its newly installed wind turbines.
Consistent with the originally projected commercial operations date, the wind farm is set to become fully operational in 2025
Following the installation of all foundations, offshore substations, and array cables, the remaining turbine components are being pre-assembled at the port of Nigg.
The construction of these kinds of projects is complex and multifaceted. They involve many companies helping to put various parts of the infrastructure into place over a long period. In May, Sarens PSG completed its marshalling scope for the 62 monopiles foundations. Mobilising and demobilising all equipment for the operation at the port of Invergordon, Sarens PSG marshalled 62 XXL monopiles weighing up to 2,000 tonnes – the largest and heaviest monopiles ever to be handled in the UK. Some monopiles measured 84.7 m in length and had a diameter of 10 m.
166-axle line SPMTs were used and were split into two sets of 80-axle lines, along with a six-axle setup for smaller components.
In April, DEME’s offshore installation vessel Orion completed its monopile installation works at Ocean Winds’ Moray West offshore wind farm.
Dutch offshore engineering contractor Boskalis reported in March that it had completed its scope for the offshore wind farm . Over the past two years, Boskalis had deployed six vessels for the project. Its subsidiary Gardline executed geotechnical and geophysical survey works before the installation work. In later phases of the project, its subsea rock installation vessel Rockpiper installed more than 110,000 tonnes of rock as scour protection for the 62 monopiles.
The semi-submersible heavy transport vessel White Marlin was on hand to transport foundations from Asia to the port of Invergordon, where the crane vessel Bokalift 2 picked up monopiles ranging in weights from 1,515 tonnes to 1,935 tonnes. The Bokalift 1 crane vessel, meanwhile, was responsible for the installation of the wind farm’s offshore substation platforms, consisting of transition pieces, topsides and additional equipment.
Mammoet has been invovled in the project too. When Navantia Seanergies-Windar Renovables became one of the first companies in Spain to fabricate XXL monopiles, Mammoet assisted with the marshalling of the components at Navantia’s Fene production facility in Ferrol. Mammoet planned a route to transport the massive monopiles to different workstations on the dock, before loading them onto delivery vessels, bound for Scotland.
