First Turbine Up at Scotland’s Neart na Gaoithe Offshore Wind Farm

July 21, 2023, by Adrijana Buljan

The first of the 54 Siemens Gamesa 8 MW wind turbines which will make up the Scottish 450 MW Neart na Gaoithe offshore wind farm is now installed, the joint venture between EDF Renewables and ESB said on 21 July.

Photo courtesy of EDF Renewables and ESB

Fred. Olsen Windcarrier’s vessel Blue Tern loaded components of four turbines at the project’s marshalling site at the Port of Dundee earlier this week and sailed out to the Neart na Gaoithe (NnG) construction site some 15 kilometres off the coast of Fife.

David Webster, Director of Energy at Forth Ports, said: “The Port of Dundee has demonstrated that Scotland can build world class port infrastructure to support the delivery of major offshore wind farms. Working with the NnG and Siemens Gamesa teams we have delivered the first turbine to a remarkable project that will not only deliver green energy but has also been a catalyst for local supply chain development and industry collaboration”.

Once commissioned, this will be the first NnG wind turbine to generate electricity, which will flow via the subsea inter-array cable to the offshore substation and, from there, via the subsea export cable to Thorntonloch Beach, where the underground onshore export cable will transmit it to the national grid.

“The construction of the first NnG wind turbine was a momentous sight. It’s a great achievement for our team and our contractors and we’ve taken a massive step towards our goal of generating 450MW of clean, green energy and helping Scotland achieve its Net Zero targets”, NnG Project Director, Matthias Haag, said.

NnG’s 8 MW wind turbines are being installed on jacket foundations, 33 of which are now in place at the project site. The first ten wind turbine foundations were installed in the fourth quarter of last year and, on 9 July, the heavy lift vessel Thialf completed the second phase of the work which included 22 jackets.

The wind turbine commissioning will be carried out using the vessel HST Swansea.

The installation of inter-array cables is underway at the project site, with the first campaign completed in May this year, which saw six inter-array cables being laid and one interconnection cable between the wind farm’s two substations.

The 450 MW NnG, jointly owned by EDF Renewables and ESB, is scheduled to be fully commissioned in 2024, when it will start supplying enough electricity for around 375,000 households per year.