Successful seabed clearance

The subsea engineering specialist cleared almost 50,000 boulders and other obstructions from 33 routes spread over a distance of 40km at the Westermost Rough wind farm, located eight kilometres off the Yorkshire coast.

ESS deployed its multi-functional SCAR seabed plough and, working from the Havila Jupiter vessel, completed ploughing and surveying operations within 20 metre corridors located between 33 turbines and the offshore sub-station.

The 72 day campaign, which had been mobilised in a 47-hour time-frame from Aberdeen, was delivered on time and within budget, and demobilisation took less than 24 hours. ESS’s offshore management and operations team included survey and ROV specialists.

Mike Wilson, managing director of Aberdeenshire based ESS, said: “Another successful seabed clearance project has been completed safely and ahead of schedule on behalf of a leading European energy group.

“The workscope covered multi-pass boulder clearing on up to 33 routes, covering an area of 720,000 sq metres and involved complex seabed navigation with ROV back-up to ensure pinpoint accuracy between passes.

The Westermost campaign was ESS’s third seabed clearance contract in the renewable sector – following on from Baltic 2 and Humber Gateway projects.

By Jake Frith