BlueFloat Energy and Renantis have deployed two floating Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) buoys at its proposed Scottish floating offshore wind farms.
The two EOLOS FLS200 LiDAR buoys were deployed between 8 and 9 April at the 900MW Broadshore site 50km north of Fraserburgh and the 1.2GW Bellrock site 130km east of Aberdeen.
The buoys are equipped with fully autonomous and remote sensing devices and will remain onsite for at least 12 months to capture wind, metocean and atmospheric data and obtain insights on the site characteristics which will help shape and inform the design of the wind farms.
BlueFloat Energy and Renantis Partnership managing director Susie Lind said: “This is another exciting step for our Broadshore and Bellrock projects and brings us closer towards delivering commercial scale floating offshore wind projects in Scotland.
“These works will ensure that we can maximise the potential of our ScotWind projects with a detailed understanding of the environment and conditions at sea to feed the design process.”
BlueFloat and Renantis were also offered seabed exclusivity rights to develop two 99MW projects under the innovation arm of Crown Estate Scotland’s INTOG (Innovation and Targeted Oil & Gas) auction process.
The Sinclair and Scaraben projects, located north of Fraserburgh, will trial innovative foundation technologies, fabrication works and mooring systems with a view to maximising opportunities for the Scottish supply chain, driving local investment and job creation, the partners said.