Fugro has been awarded two geotechnical investigation contracts for the development of the Dutch Nederwiek wind farm sites II & III (noord).
The contracts, awarded by the Netherlands Enterprise Agency (RVO), are part of the Dutch Government’s Offshore Wind Energy Roadmap 2030/31, which aims to accelerate the development of offshore wind in the Netherlands.
“This is a significant vote of confidence in our capabilities and our commitment to support the Netherlands’ energy transition,” said Sven Plasman, Fugro’s Project Director and Government Relationship Manager
”Our work will help to ensure that the Netherlands can meet its climate goals and continue to be an example in the field of offshore wind energy.”
Geo-data collection
The contracts cover a total area of 600 km2 and involve the collection of comprehensive seabed and subsurface geo-data.
This data will be used by wind farm developers as input for preliminary engineering design studies and future tenders, and will also be available for power cable design, archaeology and marine biology investigations.
Field work is scheduled to start in February 2024 and will be conducted using Fugro’s specialised fleet of advanced geotechnical vessels for seabed testing and downhole drilling.
These vessels will be equipped with Fugro’s SEACALF Mk V Deepdrive system for seabed cone penetration testing and WISON Mk V Ecodrive for downhole sampling and cone penetration testing.
In addition to this, onboard laboratory capacity will be increased to ensure faster processing of results. The subsequent extensive laboratory testing will take place in Fugro’s extended laboratories in the UK and Belgium.
The data collected by Fugro will be managed through VirGeo, Fugro’s cloud-based geo-data engagement platform, and will provide near real-time deliverables to RVO and its consulting engineers.
Subsequent phases of further processing, laboratory testing, data analysis and reporting will continue into 2025.
