Marine consultancy and survey company ABPmer has been commissioned by EnBW and BP to provide detailed seabed mobility information for the Round 4 Morgan Offshore Wind and Mona Offshore Wind Ltd farms in the eastern Irish Sea.
In addition to delivering metocean design and operating criteria for the wind farms and export cable corridors, ABPmer is now assessing the seabed mobility potential for both projects.
The work will be used to help support export cable route selection, as well as inform the ongoing wind turbine foundation and array/export cable design process.
To inform understanding of the behavioural characteristics of the seabed across both project sites, ABPmer will draw on outputs from its ongoing detailed metocean studies for Morgan and Mona, recent and historic seabed surveys, and geophysical data collected specifically for the projects.
High resolution hydrodynamic and sediment transport modelling are also being used to map the detail of long-term regional scale sediment transport pathways.
Heidi Roberts, ABPmer project director said: “We are delighted to be increasing our involvement with the Morgan and Mona projects through the provision of detailed seabed mobility analyses to inform critical aspects of project design.
“Having recently completed similar studies for other major Irish, Celtic and North Sea projects, we welcome the fact that the industry recognises ABPmer as a leading provider for investigations into seabed mobility.”
Morgan and Mona’s detailed design will continue through 2023, the wind farms are expected to be fully operational by 2029.