OHT has arrived in Scotland with a haul of nine jacket foundations for Ocean Winds’ 950MW Moray East wind farm.
OHT’s heavy transport vessel Hawk is offloading the bases at Global Energy Group’s Nigg port, where foundations are being marshalled.
The jackets were produced by Lamprell in the UAE and stand up to 80 metres tall, OHT said.
The delivery is the third consignment of UAE built bases and further deliveries are expected over the coming weeks.
“Great skill is required to safely manoeuvre the massive structures off the heavy lift vessel and into the storage areas,” Global Energy Group chairman Roy MacGregor said.
“Each structure will then be moved back to the quayside storage areas at a later date where they will be lifted onboard the installation vessel.”
Lamprell has produced 45 wind turbine and a further three substation jacket foundations for the project.
Some 55 Smulders-built turbine foundations have also started arriving in the port on barges dispatched from the fabricator’s yard in Wallsend, Newcastle.
DEME Offshore is currently installing turbine and substation foundations using Seajacks’ jack-up Scylla, which has fitted seven bases at the project since starting work last month.
“The arrival of these impressive structures at the Port of Nigg gives a striking understanding of the scale of the project which is being undertaken in the Moray Firth and the benefit this brings to the local community,” said Moray East project director Marcel Sunier.
“It’s because we are able to work at such large scale that we have been able to make significant cost reductions in the cost of produced power.”
The deep-water Moray East project secured a strike price of £57.50/MWh at the government’s second round of CfD auctions in 2017.
The project is due online next year and will feature 100 MHI Vestas 9.5MW turbines.