The World’s Deepest Wind Turbine Foundation Successfully Installed In Scotland

The Scottish energy firm SSE has successfully installed the deepest wind turbine foundation in the world (so far) at the Seagreen Wind Farm site, about 27 kilometres off the Angus coast, as part of Scotland’s largest offshore wind farm.

This foundation (jacket) was reportedly transported on a barge to the project site, where it was met by the Saipem 7000, an advanced semisubmersible crane vessel that helps lift each of the 2,000-ton turbine foundations. The operation was aided by the main contractor Seaway 7.

The foundation was successfully erected at a depth of about 58.6 meters. It set a brand new record for foundation installation.

This milestone further marks the 112th jacket installation at the 114-wind turbine wind farm. All of this is part of the £3-billion offshore Seagreen wind farm, which it has been developing in collaboration with the French oil firm dubbed TotalEnergies.

The ultimate wind turbine foundation is also expected to be successfully installed later this week.

The foundations are going to exclusively support a Vestas V164-10 MW turbine. The 1GW wind farm started generating electricity in August last year, with the offshore wind farm that is expected to commence commercial operations later in 2023.

Once done, the 1.1GW wind farm can yield nearly 5,000 GWh of renewable energy per year, which is adequately clean, sustainable, and secure electricity to power over 1.6m homes in the UK.

The Seagreen wind farm is an essential part of the SSE’s £12.5 billion Net-Zero Acceleration Plan, which can accelerate the UK’s path toward transforming into a 100% net-zero economy. By the end of this decade, SSE also plans on investing more than £24 billion in the UK itself.

Reference: The Guardian, Inceptive Mind