The 950MW Moray East wind farm has entered the offshore construction phase with the start of piling operations earlier this month.
The piling operations started on 19 May and are expected to take place over a period of approximately eleven months, a Notice of Operations said.
Moray East contracted GeoSea NV Geotechnical & Offshore Solutions, now integrated into DEME Offshore, to carry out pile foundation installation at the site some 22 kilometres off the Aberdeenshire coast in Scotland.
The pile foundations will be installed by the heavy lift vessel Apollo . They will be installed by the use of a pile installation template where three pin piles are stabbed into the seabed through the piling temple then driven to target depth in readiness for the jacket installation. The pin piles are being delivered by BiFab and by EEW.
DEME is the EPCI contractor for the wind farm’s turbine foundations and three offshore substation foundations and is in charge of the transport and installation of the OSS topsides.
Moray East will comprise 100 MHI Vestas 9.5MW wind turbines mounted on jacket foundations and scheduled to be fully operational in 2022.
The project developer, Moray Offshore Windfarm (East) Ltd, is owned by EDPR, Diamond Green Limited, and Engie.