Scottish Floater Selects Onshore Base

The Pentland Floating Offshore Wind Farm (PFOWF) project has signed an MOU with Scrabster Harbour Trust to work together on the development of Operations and Maintenance (O&M) requirements, services, and facilities as part of a wider commitment to boost the Scottish supply chain.

The MOU also sees the organisations commit to collaboratively investigating the potential for construction support services and major component change-out for floating wind turbines.

It builds on work secured by Scrabster Harbour throughout the project’s early stages, including vessel mobilisation and demobilisation for geophysical and geotechnical surveys and use of the port’s facilities during commissioning and deployment of wind measurement equipment over 2020.

The development activities of the PFOWF are being managed by Copenhagen Offshore Partners (COP) on behalf of Highland Wind Limited.

Highland Wind is majority-owned by fund management company Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners (CIP), through one of its CI funds.

”This MOU demonstrates the benefits that the Pentland Floating Offshore Wind Farm could bring to the Caithness area. Providing Operations and Maintenance for offshore wind brings long-term, high value jobs and wider economic and social benefits,” Richard Copeland, Project Director at COP UK, said.

”Scrabster is ideally positioned to support the Pentland project throughout its lifetime and the recent investments, such as the St Ola Pier, which was officially opened last week, and deep-water basin, only enhance that position.”

The PFOWF is also undertaking a local supply chain and socioeconomic study with the University of Highlands and Islands and Xodus which will assess the benefits that development at Scrabster will bring to the local area.

”The Pentland project is already bringing work to Scrabster and we are pleased to build on that working relationship towards Scrabster becoming the O&M facility for the Project,” Sandy Mackie, Scrabster Harbour Trust Manager, said.

”As well as bringing direct opportunities to the port and wider area, Pentland will also provide the ideal opportunity to further demonstrate our capabilities and readiness for supporting offshore wind, such as the larger scale projects to be deployed through ScotWind.”

The PFOWF development is planned over two stages. The first consists of a single turbine demonstrator with deployment expected in 2024.

The Pentland Demo will be located approximately 6.5 kilometres off the north coast of Caithness and will be capable of generating 8.6 MW from a structure designed to withstand the type of harsh conditions prevalent in Scottish waters, the developer said.

The second stage is the larger array project of up to ten turbines which will be collectively capable of generating up to 100 MW.

Construction of the array is expected to commence in 2024 and it will be operational in 2026. Upon completion, the array will be the largest of its kind in the world.

The project announcement follows the recent confirmation that CIP has entered the ScotWind process as part of a consortium with SSE Renewables and Marubeni Corporation.

The three companies will combine their local experience and global expertise to help Scotland deliver 10 GW of new offshore wind projects.