The world’s deepest wind turbine foundation just got installed

The world’s deepest wind turbine foundation has been installed at what will be Scotland’s largest offshore wind farm, which is called Seagreen, off the coast of Angus, UK, SSE announced today.

On Friday, main contractor Seaway 7 transported the foundation – or what’s known as a jacket in the offshore wind industry – to Seagreen’s site, 16.7 miles (27 km) off the eastern coast, where it was met by the Saipem 7000, the semi-submersible crane vessel that lifts each of the 2,000-tonne turbine foundations into place.

The deepest foundation has been installed at a depth of 58.6 meters (192 feet). The installation of the jacket means Seagreen has now topped its own record from October 2022, when a previous foundation was installed at a depth of 57.4 meters (188 feet).

John Hill, Seagreen’s project director said:

More than 50 people are involved each time a foundation installation takes place including the onshore team, ballast engineer, tug captain, crew, riggers, welders, tow master and pilot.

Our ability to install jackets at this depth, in what is a challenging geographical area, boosts the UK’s energy security and means that consumers can benefit from the strong winds available far out in the North Sea.

This latest milestone also marks the installation of the 112th jacket at the 114-turbine offshore wind farm, which is a £3 billion ($3.74 billion) joint venture between SSE Renewables and TotalEnergies. The final wind turbine foundation is expected to be installed later this week.

Each foundation will support a Vestas V164-10 MW wind turbine. Seagreen achieved its first power in August 2022, and it’s expected to enter commercial operation later this year.

When complete, the 1.1 GW wind farm will be capable of generating around 5,000 GWh of renewable energy annually, which is enough clean, secure, sustainable electricity to power more than 1.6 million UK homes.

Photos: SSE

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