The development of Scotland’s largest and world’s deepest offshore wind farm, Seagreen, has taken a step forward. Petrofac loaded out the High Voltage Alternating Current (HVAC) offshore substation platform jacket and piles, while back on Seagreen site the first turbine jacket foundation has been installed. 

Located 27 kilometres off the coast of Angus, once commissioned Seagreen will provide around 1.6 million homes with low carbon energy. The £3 billion ($4.1 billion) offshore wind farm is being developed by SSE Renewables (49 percent) and TotalEnergies (51 percent). First power is expected by early 2022 with the offshore wind farm expected to enter commercial operation in 2022/23.

Petrofac loads out HVAC jacket and piles

Petrofac, the company tagged to design, supply and install the HVAC onshore and offshore substations for the Seagreen wind farm project has hit a milestone in the process. The company recently loaded out the High Voltage Alternating Current (HVAC) offshore substation platform jacket and piles.

The superstructure has been loaded at the Eversendai Offshore’s facility in the UAE onto the Dongbang Giant No: 8. The superstructure has now left the UAE ahead of its installation in the deep waters of the North Sea. According to the AIS data, the vessel is currently sailing in the Red Sea and is heading for the Suez Canal.

First turbine jacket foundation installed at Seagreen

While the HVAC superstructure is moving towards the offshore wind farm, the first structure is already in place. SSE Renewables informed that the first out of 114 turbine jacket foundations is installed at the Seagreen wind farm site.

The jacket structures weighing between 1,850 and 2300 tons were loaded onto the barge by Mammoet in collaboration with Cometto, usinf 84 axle lines.

Two jackets operated by main contractor Seaway 7 made their way on a barge from Global Energy Group’s Port of Nigg in the Highlands of Scotland to the site 27km off the coast of Angus. The barge was met by the Saipem 7000 – the semisubmersible crane vessel which is used to lift each of the 2,000 tonne jackets.

The installation campaign marks the first-ever gigawatt-scale deployment of suction caisson technology to fix offshore wind turbine foundations to the seabed.

Several barges will work in continuous rotation with each other carrying two jackets from Nigg to the offshore site before returning to Nigg for replenishment. Each journey from Nigg out to site will take approximately 36 hours depending on the weather.