Following the success of the preliminary geotechnical coring programme in 2010, Fugro has successfully performed a detailed geophysical survey of Navitus Bay for Eneco Round 3 Development Ltd. Navitus Bay is to the west of the Isle of Wight and lies within Zone 7 of the Crown Estate’s Round 3 UK offshore wind farm zones.
The aim of the survey was to acquire sufficient data to carry out the front end engineering and design studies, and to gain a thorough understanding of the zone’s geology and geomorphology. Fugro were tasked with acquiring suitable survey results to support the environmental processes and for the detailed design and installation of the wind turbine foundations and export cables.
The detailed geophysical survey was on the main wind farm area, the export cable routes from the wind farm to the UK mainland, and a met mast location. Various sensors and geophysical techniques were used for the survey including single and multibeam echo sounder, high resolution side scan sonar, sub-bottom profiler, magnetometer and ultra-high resolution multichannel seismic. The integrated survey report provided a detailed image of the seafloor and a geological model of the site.
The Navitus Bay project involved surveying an area of more than 200km² and took around one month to execute.
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Offshore WIND staff, March 28, 2012; Image: fugro