Energy and marine consultancy ABL is to carry out a navigational risk assessment of offshore wind farm sites in the N-10 identified area of interest in the German North Sea.
The consultancy has been commissioned by Germany’s Federal Maritime and Hydrographic Agency (Bundesamt fur Seeschifffahrt und Hydrographie – BSH)
This latest award is in addition to ABL’s ongoing project with BSH to provide a trilateral Formal Safety Assessment of development intentions within Danish, Dutch and German North Sea waters.
“We are pleased to continue our collaboration with BSH to support early marine risk mitigation in the North Sea’s extensive future offshore wind plans,” said ABL’s country manager in Germany Tilo Klappenbach.
“We have a great working relationship with BSH and look forward to applying the combination of our marine and renewable energy expertise to support future German offshore wind development.”
ABL’s scope of work is to provide a comprehensive navigational risk assessment, including recommendations for risk mitigation measures.
The findings will form an important part of the pre-investigation of the N-10 offshore development sites.
The N-10 project is managed by ABL’s operation in Hamburg, Germany, and conducted by consultants from ABL’s ports and harbours team.
Principal consultant, marine risk, at ABL in London Tom Chitseko said: “Given the ambitious offshore development plans for the German Bight Sea area, it is crucial that site interfaces with shipping risks are understood and addressed.
“This project will draw on our understanding of the practical and regulatory constraints in the North Sea as well as technical competence in navigation risk assessment.
“With Germany targeting 70GW of offshore wind generation capacity by 2045, early identification of these risks will play a significant role in mitigating project delays and site risks, ultimately reducing project costs.”