Heerema Marine Contractors has completed its first job of the season in the North Sea with the installation of the 4,800 metric ton Seagreen offshore platform. The heavy lifting has been completed by Heerema’s semi-submersible crane vessel Thialf. 

The topside forms the backbone of the offshore wind farm. At 40 metres long, 45 metres wide and 15 metres high, the heavyweight superstructure’s role is to collect and manage 1,075MW of power generated by the 114 Vestas wind turbines before transferring it ashore via around 60 kilometres of offshore subsea cabling.

Once onshore, the electricity continues to the new Tealing substation near Dundee via a further 19 kilometres of cabling for onward distribution to homes and businesses via the national electricity network.

The topside was lifted from a heavy transport vessel and on to the previously installed 6-legged jacket foundation. The completed structure sits in water depths of around 55 meters and will be one of the largest AC platforms in UK waters.

Specialist cable installation and support vessels will continue to install the onsite inter-array network of cables to the turbines and to the offshore platform. Another vessel is currently installing the export cable from the landfall point at Carnoustie.

Situated around 27 kilometres off the Angus coast, the Seagreen wind farm is a joint venture between SSE Renewables (49 percent) and TotalEnergies (51 percent). SSE Renewables is leading the development and construction of the Seagreen project and will operate Seagreen on completion for its expected 25-year lifetime.

The Seagreen Wind Farm is scheduled to enter operation in early 2023. At 1.1GW, the wind farm will be capable of generating around 5,000 GWh of renewable energy annually which is enough clean and sustainable electricity to power more than 1.6m UK homes. With the equivalent saving of around 2m tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions annually, Seagreen will make a significant contribution to Scotland’s and the UK’s net zero targets.