ESB Probing Monopile Hammer Market for UK Offshore Wind Project

Ireland’s energy company ESB is exploring the capabilities of the monopile hammer market for an offshore wind project in the UK whose foundations are planned to be installed using this kind of equipment.

ESB has issued a market consultation notice inviting companies to discuss their capabilities to supply, deliver, and operate a monopile hammer which would be used in the foundation installation process of the project.

The company has not disclosed any details about the offshore wind project in the UK. The market consultation notice has been issued by ESB on behalf of a joint venture (JV) between the company and its partners, who have also been left unnamed.

In the UK, the Irish company holds stakes in several projects.

Last year, ESB entered into a 50:50 joint venture with Red Rock Power to develop the Inch Cape wind farm offshore Scotland, which recently received the green light to install more than the previously set maximum of 1 GW of offshore wind capacity.

ESB also holds 12.5 per cent stake in the Five Estuaries project, an up to 353 MW extension to the existing 353 MW Galloper offshore wind farm located 27 kilometres off the Suffolk coast, in which ESB also has a 12.5 per cent stake.

In 2019, the Irish company also acquired a 50 per cent shareholding in the Scottish 448 MW Neart na Gaoithe offshore wind farm, currently under construction.

This July, ESB revealed that it had submitted applications for two floating projects, each with an installed capacity of up to 1 GW, in the ScotWind seabed leasing process in Scotland.