Progress with Thanet Offshore Wind Farm

Developers Thanet Offshore Wind Limited, a subsidiary of Warwick Energy Limited are planning to install 100 wind turbines seven miles east of Margate generating 300MW of electricity, enough to power 240,000 homes.

It has now been announced that Noble Denton have been awarded their largest contract to date, worth £15M covering project management services and foundation installation management for the scheme. The contract comprises two separate elements involving two of Noble Denton’s subsidiary companies. BOMEL Limited will be responsible for project management including design, construction, installation, testing and commissioning work. Meanwhile Noble Denton Consultants Limited will be responsible for the foundation installation management contract.

BOMEL Limited have already been involved at the early stages of the Thanet project providing foundation studies, the preparation of contracts and the managing of the geotechnical site investigation, preparing inputs for the Environmental Impact Statement and the carrying out of ship impact studies.

Ian Bonnon, Noble Denton’s Europe Southern Operations Director stated; ‘It is particularly pleasing to have signed these contracts with Thanet Offshore Wind Limited…Through our detailed understanding of offshore renewable projects, we are in a unique position to offer the client the right blend of skills, personnel and experience which will allow the Thanet project to successfully move forward into the construction and installation phase.

‘BOMEL has already established itself as a leading supplier of project management services to the offshore renewables industry and the award of this prestigious contract further enhances the company’s reputation in this field. The award of the foundations installation management contract to Noble Denton introduces the offshore renewables industry with an established contractor in this field, who has now completed a planned diversification into the renewables market.’

Thanet Offshore Wind Limited has also announced that it has signed a long term lease with Thanet District Council, owners of the Port of Ramsgate whereby the port will become the Operations and Maintenance Base for the wind farm. An existing warehouse in Military Road is to be converted into office facilities for the expected 25 engineers and technicians that will be based at the port. A new dedicated pontoon is to be installed in the port to handle the specialist vessels needed to transfer crews to and from the site. The offshore foundation installation work is due to commence late in 2008.

The Port of Ramsgate will be hoping for a similar commitment from the developers of the much larger London Array wind farm, claimed to be the largest such project of its kind in the world with almost 300 turbines planned for an area 12 miles off the Thanet coast. The London Array scheme suffered a setback earlier in 2008 when one of the partners, Shell disposed of their stake in the project. Their share was however taken over by the two other developers E.ON and Dong Energy, each now having a 50/50 partnership in the scheme. The project is now progressing again with completion of the first phase scheduled for 2012.

Other work currently underway with the Thanet Offshore wind farm includes the construction of the electricity substation at the site of the disused Richborough Power Station close to Ramsgate. Cabling from the wind farm will come ashore at nearby Pegwell Bay.

By Peter Barker