Shipping study commissioned to assess wind farm risk

The Korsnäs wind farm, a joint project between Vattenfall and Metsähallitus, a Finnish state-owned enterprise responsible for managing most of Finland’s publicly owned lands and waters, will be about 15km off Finland’s west coast in the Baltic Sea.

Its planned generation capacity is 2.5GW and it is scheduled to be operational in the 2030s at a cost of €2-3 billion, Metsähallitus estimates.

“During the first phase of the project, 70-100 turbines with a nominal power of 12 to 22 megawatts or more would be built in the area,” says Metsähallitus. “The Korsnäs project will thus become the first offshore wind farm located in the open sea area in Finland.”

Among the risks to be evaluated by ABL, which has offices in 39 countries, is sea ice in the vicinity.

“The assessment will principally address the effect on the development on vessel navigational safety in its region,” said spokesperson Endre Johansen. “We typically describe vessel navigation risks as risks of ‘allisions, collisions and groundings’.

“ABL will be assessing how the windfarm affects the likelihood and consequences of these vessel navigation risk factors, and any risk mitigation measures that might be relevant (e.g. safety zones, the ability of the Border Guard to take action in the event of an incident).”

Offshore wind sites have to be assessed for vessel traffic patterns and density, seasonal variations, collision risk, electromagnetic interference between turbines and vessel navigation equipment, international boundaries, safety zones and many other aspects.

“We are pleased to provide our expertise in navigational risk analysis to support this pivotal step in Finland’s renewable energy development,” said Tilo Klappenbach, ABL’s country manager to Germany. “This follows many years of successful collaboration by our team on similar work for Germany’s Federal Maritime and Hydrographic Agency – BSH – to assess shipping risks from offshore wind sites across the North Sea.”