Dong Energy has awarded a contract for one of the largest seabed investigation campaigns in the history of the offshore wind industry to Fugro GeoConsulting.
Worth £13 million, it covers geotechnical investigation work in preparation for Hornsea Project One, scheduled to go into operation by 2020 when it will become the world’s first gigawatt scale far from shore wind farm. The park is located 120km off the Yorkshire coast and, when completed, will be able to meet the electricity needs of around 800,000 UK homes.
Hornsea Project One is being developed by Smart Wind – a consortium of Mainstream Renewable Power and Siemens Financial Services (SFS) – and Dong Energy. Currently awaiting a development consent decision, Hornsea Project One is one of three projects for which Dong Energy was awarded Financial Investment Decision Enabling Contracts for Difference by the Government in April this year.
Benj Sykes, Dong Energy Vice President Wind Power UK and Co-Chair of the UK’s Offshore Wind Industry Council , said: “Dong Energy is committed to increasing the UK supply chain content in future offshore wind farm projects and this contract represents an important step in the right direction. It will also help us make significant progress on the journey to reduce the cost of electricity produced by offshore wind farms.”
Daniel Deen, Senior Project Manager at Fugro GeoConsulting said “Our geotechnical vessels will undertake seabed cone penetration testing and borehole drilling as part of the detailed site investigation. Subsequent soil testing at our laboratory facilities will also support development of the project infrastructure at this site.”
Fugro GeoConsulting plan to use two of the largest and best equipped geotechnical vessels available on the market – M/V Greatship Manisha and M/V Bucentaur – to undertake the investigation work which will begin this month.