Dutch company Ridderflex delivered 4,150 dampening pads to Seaway Heavy Lifting (SHL) in March, with SHL now installing them in the jacket pile grippers as part of foundation installation works currently ongoing at the Beatrice offshore wind farm.
The two companies had jointly developed a brand new product to meet the specific requirements to dampen the impact loads during jacket set down on pre-installed foundation piles, according to a press release from Ridderflex.
The pads were integrated in the jacket pile grippers required for the installation of the 84 wind turbine substructures of the 588MW offshore wind project, the company explained, adding that they consist of a polyurethane dampening pad directly moulded on a steel plate.
Seaway Heavy Lifting’s vessels Stanislav Yudin and Oleg Strashnov are currently working on foundation installation at the Beatrice site. The piling works, carried out by Stanislav Yudin, are expected to be completed by the end of October. Oleg Strashnov is scheduled to be working on jacket installation until December 2017 and then resume in May 2018, weather permitting.
The offshore wind farm will consist of 84 Siemens 7MW wind turbines and two Siemens Offshore Transformer Modules (OTMs), all placed on top of jacket foundations.
Beatrice is located on the North Western point of the Smith Bank, approximately 13km off the Caithness coastline.
The £2.6bn project has been given the green light for construction by owners SSE (40%), Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners (CIP) (35%) and Red Rock Power Limited (25%) after reaching Financial Close on 23 May 2016. The project will be one of the largest private investments ever made in Scottish infrastructure.