The first of the five gravity based foundations built at the Neptune dry dock in Newcastle by the Royal BAM Group for the 41.5MW Blyth Offshore Demonstrator Project has begun its journey along the River Tyne, EDF Energy Renewables said.
The foundations combine a steel reinforced concrete foundation, with a steel monopile, allowing the installation in water depth of up to 45 metres while eliminating noise from pile hammering during installation.
The foundation design utilises ‘self-installing’ technology, developed by two BAM companies, BAM Nuttall and BAM Infra. The design has been carried out by BAM Infraconsult, which assigned COWI to assist with geotechnical interpretation and load definition.
The Blyth Offshore Demonstrator Project is the first to utilise the hybrid gravity based foundations, as well as 66kV electrical infrastructure .
The project will see five optimised MHI Vestas 8.3MW wind turbines installed around 6.5km off the coast of Blyth.
The wind farm is due for completion during summer 2017.
The development has consent for up to 15 turbines.