An increase in the potential overall project capacity from 2600MW to up to 3600MW has been identified for the proposed Ossian Wind Farm off the East Coast of Scotland.
If achieved, this would put it among the top five largest floating offshore wind farms globally.
The Ossian project is being delivered by a partnership of Scottish renewable energy developer SSE Renewables, Japanese conglomerate Marubeni Corporation and Danish fund management company Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners (CIP).
Set to be located across 858sq km of seabed in waters off the east coast of Scotland, the project is enough to power almost 6m Scottish homes and offset around 7.5 million tonnes of harmful carbon emissions each year.
In recent months the Ossian project completed a full geophysical and benthic survey of the project area. The data collected has informed a review of the potential wind farm capacity. Subject to undertaking the necessary further environmental and technical assessments, the site could be used to generate the increased capacity of up to 3.6GW.
Floating LiDAR (or FLiDAR: Floating Light Detection and Ranging) equipment is now acquiring data at the Ossian site having been deployed by Glasgow-based metocean specialists PARTRAC.
The company has placed EOLOS FLS 200 FLiDAR equipment across two locations at the Ossian site with the aim of measuring wind speed and direction to help determine the best locations and positions for wind turbines.
Senior Project Manager for Ossian, David Willson said: “We are excited that through further technical assessment of our project area, we now believe Ossian could provide an even greater renewable electricity output. If realised, this change would position the project among the top five largest floating projects in the world, demonstrating its epic scale. This is a great motivator for project partners SSE Renewables, Marubeni and CIP and the whole project team.
“Our geophysical survey collected data to a very high standard, ahead of schedule and under budget in 109 days with zero HSE incidents – an amazing achievement to be proud of.
“Our FLiDAR and Metocean measurement campaign successfully kicked-off in August which will deliver comprehensive measurements of the metocean conditions to inform the development of the Ossian site.
“We will now work with our stakeholders and regulators to secure the appropriate consent so that the full potential of the Ossian Wind Farm Project can be realised.”