Fugro Gearing Up for UXO Hunt at Beatrice

Fugro is getting ready to carry out a survey for unexploded ordnance (UXO) across the development zone of the 588MW Beatrice offshore wind farm located in the Outer Moray Firth off the east coast of Scotland.

Fugro will deploy three survey vessels,  Fugro Helmert, Fugro Frontier, and Meridian to carry out the survey, Beatrice Offshore Windfarm Limited (BOWL), the developer of the wind farm, announced in a notice to mariners.

The UXO survey is expected to start during an appropriate weather window following 1 September and will continue over a planned minimum period of 8 weeks, weather permitting.

The three vessels may not commence their activities at the same time but will likely operate simultaneously at times on the site over the survey duration. The vessels are planned to operate from Wick and Inverness.

The purpose of this survey is to carry out an investigation and removal of UXO ahead of the construction works at the site, including full high resolution UXO survey at the locations of all proposed wind turbine generator (WTG) and offshore transformer modules (OTMs), jack-up stand-off locations and along the inter array cable corridors in order to confirm that each site is free from potential UXO or other items that may pose a hazard to installation operations.

The routes of the inter array cables may subsequently be altered, where possible, to avoid the UXO, or the UXO will be removed if no alternate route is available.

Beatrice will comprise 84 7MW Siemens turbines scheduled for full commissioning in 2019. Offshore construction works are expected to start in 2017.

Beatrice Offshore Windfarm Limited is a partnership formed between SSE, SDIC Power and Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners.