The wind farm is to consist of between 45 to 108 wind turbines on foundations secured to the seabed within a 14 sq/m site. The turbines’ rated power will be between 3 and 7 MW, with an estimated capacity for the site of 315 MW. The minimum distance to shore from the nearest turbine will be some 9 nautical miles.

For the metocaen analysis, Metoc produced information on prevailing and extreme conditions for wind, waves, current and water level, including their joint probability of occurrence, to assist engineers with integrated loading analysis and project planning. Secondary variables such as temperature, ice and snow, and marine growth were also addressed.

The work quantified the spatial variability in metocean conditions across the wind farm, specifically current, water level, and wave crest evaluation. The project will be combining this information with its geotechnical assessment across the site. The wind analysis included desktop assessment of the wind resource, the wind speed profile and height, and wind energy density spectra and turbulence intensity at nacelle height.

With fatigue analysis a key design consideration, the study produced detailed information on wave climate in terms of height, period and direction, and its enrgy density spectra in a form that allows ready input into integrated engineering analysis packages such as GH Bladed.

One of the key deliverables from the study is a long term database of wind and wave time series which was produced to enable the project to perform further operability simulations with regards to installation and maintenance.