Arklow Bank Surveys to Start Next Month

Hydrographic and geophysical surveys on the proposed 520MW Arklow Bank wind farm in the Irish Sea are scheduled to start in June.

The start of the surveys off the Ireland’s Wicklow coast is weather dependent. Weather permitting, the work is expected to be completed by the end of September 2019, a marine notice said.

The surveys will provide bathymetric and subsurface information to facilitate the development of the wind farm.

The wind farm support catamaran AMS Panther and the multi-purpose, shallow draft tug AMS Retriever will work in parallel across the site. The vessels are operated by the Ireland-based Alpha Marine.

The 520MW Arklow Bank project is being developed by SSE. The company is also the co-developer of Ireland’s first and only operational offshore wind farm – the 7-turbine 25MW Arklow Bank Phase 1, which was delivered with GE Energy in 2004 as a demonstrator project to prove the opportunity that offshore wind energy could represent for Ireland.