Boskalis has secured a multidisciplinary role in the coming year, for the development of the Moray West offshore wind farm in the Moray Firth off the eastern coast of Scotland.

The contract was awarded by Ocean Winds, a joint venture dedicated to offshore wind energy between the Spanish company, EDP Renewables and the French company ENGIE. The Moray West wind farm is capable of providing electricity to up to 640,000 homes in the United Kingdom with its 882 MW capacity.

The wind farm comprises 60 offshore wind turbines and two substations, all supported by monopile foundations, which must be extremely large and weigh up to 2,000 tons each due to the substantial turbine size (14.7 megawatts) and water depth (up to 54 metres) requirements.

The Project

In the coming months, Boskalis will transport a large number of the monopiles from the Far East to discharge at the port of Invergordon, 40 kilometres north of Inverness, near the project site. These monopiles will be transported on the heavy transport vessel White Marlin, in batches of eight per voyage. Built in 2015, this heavy load carrier has a length of 217 metres and a width of 63 metres. The vessel has a gross tonnage of 51065 tonnes.

Boskalis has already carried out an offshore geophysical site survey that also included a survey for the identification of unexploded ordnance. Boskalis will prepare the seabed for the installation of foundations by laying a layer of rock that will serve as a filter and scour protection for the monopiles.

Following this, Boskalis will use its DP crane vessel, Bokalift 2, equipped with a 4,000-ton crane and new upending hinge and motion-compensated pile gripper to install the monopiles. To complete the installation process, Boskalis will deploy a vibro-hammer in addition to a large impact hammer. Alongside the monopiles, two substations and their transition pieces will also be installed by Boskalis as part of the campaign.