Offshore works have started off Aberdeen Bay in preparation for full construction of the European Offshore Wind Deployment Centre (EOWDC), the project company, Aberdeen Offshore Wind Farm Limited (AOWFL), informed.
The geotechnical site investigation will take place at each of the EOWDC’s 11 turbine locations to assess the seabed, with the data acquired being used to inform the final design and micro-siting of the turbine foundations.
Fugro is carrying out the site investigation work, and has mobilised one of its dynamically-positioned geotechnical drilling vessels, the Bucentaur, to the 100MW EOWDC site about 2km to 5km off Aberdeen’s coast. The work is due to be supplemented with geophysical surveys later this year.
Full offshore construction is scheduled to start in late 2017 or early 2018, after an investment decision later this year.
The partners behind the project, Vattenfall and Aberdeen Renewable Energy Group (AREG), said the scheme in on schedule for operations to start in 2018.
Andy Paine , head of UK offshore wind development for Vattenfall and project director for AOWFL, said: “The preparatory works being carried out helps keep the project on schedule ahead of an investment decision later this year and first power in 2018. The partners are currently working on the basis of fully financing the more than £230mn scheme and want to see the project come to fruition.”
In December 2015, after the UK’s Supreme Court ruled against Donald Trump in his latest legal battle against the project, the billionaire, and one of the US presidential candidates, announced he will take the fight to the next level , namely to European courts.
Trump has been fighting the project claiming it ruins the landscape and the view from his golf resort in Aberdeen.