Offshore wind site investigations begin

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A four-month marine site characterisation campaign has begun at two major offshore wind development sites in the UK.

'Fugro Scout'

Fugro is performing surveys and sampling using its 'Fugro Scout' vessel. Photo: Fugro

Fugro is carrying out geotechnical investigations for Swedish energy group Vattenfall at the Norfolk Vanguard and Norfolk Boreas offshore wind farm sites, located over 40km off the coast of Norfolk, UK. The resulting Geo-data from Fugro’s investigations will feed into the ground model for the wind farms, which will have a total installed capacity of 3.6 GW, enough to power more than 3.9m homes.

Rob Anderson, project director of Vattenfall UK’s Norfolk Vanguard and Norfolk Boreas projects, said: “The Norfolk Vanguard and Norfolk Boreas projects are huge and complicated infrastructure projects requiring long-term planning and support from specialist service providers during their development and beyond. We are pleased to partner with Fugro on these important site investigation projects, who we can rely on to provide the necessary Geo-data for the next phase of engineering and procurement.”

Surveys and sampling

Working from its dynamically positioned (DP2) geotechnical drill ship Fugro Scout, Fugro is performing surveys and sampling using its proprietary SEACALFMk V DeepDrive cone penetration testing system at both sites, and will carry out testing both in situ and at the company’s soils laboratories in Wallingford, UK, and Nootdorp in the Netherlands.

The site characterisation work is split across two projects: the first will help Vattenfall optimise the wind turbine foundation engineering design; the second will assist Vattenfall in selecting the most efficient cable route from the onshore substation to the turbines.

By Rebecca Jeffrey