ESS Officially Announces Beatrice Contract

April 3, 2017

Ecosse Subsea Systems (ESS) today informed that it had been awarded a contract for the seabed clearance at the Beatrice offshore wind farm site in the Outer Moray Firth. Offshore WIND reported on the start of the works in early March, when Siem Offshore Contractors was set to begin the boulder removal and SCAR plough campaign at the project site.

The subsea technology company is conducting boulder clearing operations in 50-metre water depth, deploying its SCAR2 Seabed System from the Siem Ruby vessel on behalf of Siem Offshore Contractors.

ESS commercial director, Keith McDermott, said: “We’ve had a busy start to 2017 with mobilisation on a major interconnector project in the North Sea followed by this boulder-clearing workscope for Siem Offshore Contractors.

“We have a strong relationship with Siem Offshore Contractors, dating back to a boulder clearing and trenching workscope on the EnBW Baltic 2 offshore wind farm, and we are delighted to be working with them again.”

According to McDermott, the company’s experience in offshore wind gained in the UK, as well as in other European countries, serves as a good foundation for bidding for projects outside Europe.

“With experience of similar clearance and trenching workscopes on Race Bank and Westermost Rough windfarms offshore the east coast of England, and a number of projects in the Baltic Sea, our track record in renewables is well-established,” McDermott said. “We are focused on exporting this technology and expertise in to emerging markets in Asia and the US, where offshore wind is beginning to get decent traction, and the Beatrice award strengthens our pedigree when bidding for other contracts.”

Meanwhile, the construction phase of the Beatrice project kicked off recently, with Seaway Heavy Lifting carrying out pre-piling works.

The 588MW wind farm – developed by a joint venture partnership between SSE (40%), Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners (35%) and Red Rock Power Ltd. (25%) – is expected to become fully operational in 2019.