Sarens PSG’s new Offshore Wind Centre of Excellence in Aberdeen will be the base for a major study aimed at enabling the rapid and cost-effective deployment of floating wind turbines in the North Sea on an industrial scale.
The offshore wind specialists have been commissioned by the BlueFloat Energy and Nadara Partnership to pioneer innovative solutions for transporting floating foundations from land to sea.
The study will focus on developing methods to deploy completed floating wind structures directly from construction or production facilities to operational sites.
It aims to achieve this for production-line scale volumes, spanning multiple operational years.
By investigating deployment operations, the study will identify key cost, risk, and scheduling implications and assess the impact of these factors on port infrastructure within the context of the partnership’s projects.
Sarens PSG will leverage the engineering expertise of its partner Sarens NV for the study.
Managing director of Sarens PSG Steve Clark (pictured) said: “Sarens PSG is excited to continue our collaboration with the BlueFloat Energy and Nadara Partnership on this groundbreaking study, conducted from our newly established Offshore Wind Centre of Excellence in Aberdeen’s Energy Transition Zone.
“While deployment techniques have been trialled in smaller-scale demonstrator projects, scaling these processes to achieve major deployments with next-generation solutions at pace and cost-effectively will be transformative for the industry.”
He added: “This investment in innovative research underlines the partnership’s commitment to delivering successful floating offshore wind projects that are pivotal to global energy transition efforts and achieving net-zero targets.
“It has the potential to be an absolute game-changer for the sector.”
The partnership is developing a pipeline of up to 3.8GW across five floating offshore wind farms in Scotland.
UK portfolio director at the partnership David Robertson said: “These studies represent a significant step forward in the development of our pipeline of floating offshore wind projects in Scotland and will not only deepen our understanding of some of the most pertinent technical challenges facing our industry, but also leverage local expertise through the regional supply chain.”
Through ScotWind, the partnership is developing the 1.2GW Bellrock project east of Aberdeen, the 900MW Broadshore project north of Fraserburgh and in collaboration with Ørsted, the 1.5GW Stromar project east of Caithness.
The partnership has also secured seabed exclusivity agreements for two innovation projects under the INTOG process, Sinclair and Scaraben, each at 99.5MW and located adjacent to Broadshore.