Smulders Piecing Together EOWDC Suction Bucket Jacket Foundations (Video)

Belgian steel foundations specialist Smulders has shared a video showing the construction of the eleven suction bucket jacket foundations for Vattenfall’s European Offshore Wind Deployment Centre (EOWDC) in Aberdeen Bay, Scotland.

Smulders will carry out the final assembly of the eleven foundations at its manufacturing facility in Newcastle.

The company was awarded the EOWDC contract by Boskalis which is the overall Tier 1 supplier of the project’s offshore balance of plant (BoP) work for the construction and installation (EPCI) of the offshore infrastructure including the foundations and cabling.

Boskalis expects the jackets to be installed at the site some three kilometres off Aberdeen in January 2018, which will be followed by the installation of the 66kV inter-array cables and the export cable.

The eleven MHI Vestas 8.4MW turbines are scheduled for installation in March 2018.

As Scotland’s largest offshore wind test and demonstration centre, the 92.5MW EOWDC will trial next generation technology and is expected to contribute to driving down the cost of clean power.

The wind farm is expected to generate first power in summer 2018 and operate for 20 years.