Foundation Installation Soon to Begin at Neart na Gaoithe Offshore Wind Farm

The installation of the wind turbine jacket foundations is soon to commence at the 450 MW Neart an Gaoithe (NnG) wind farm offshore Scotland.

Ten three-legged jacket substructures will be installed onto pre-installed piles at the NnG construction site, located some 15 kilometres off the Fife coast.

The jacket foundations will be brought directly to the site from the location of fabrication by COSCO Shipping’s heavy load carrier Xin Yao Hua.

The installation, which is due to begin on 1 October at the earliest, will be performed by Heerema Marine Contractors’ semi-submersible crane vessel Balder with the support of several tugs, according to the project’s latest Notice to Mariners.

Prior to jacket installation, the support vessel, named Normand Navigator, will undertake pile cleaning and pre-jacket installation survey via a Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV). Following the installation, the vessel will grout the pile-jacket connections.

In June, Heerema Marine Contractors, using the world’s largest crane vessel Sleipnir, installed the first of the wind farm’s two offshore substations while the offshore export cables were connected to the OSS jacket foundations last week.

Jointly owned by EDF Renewables and ESB, Neart na Gaoithe will comprise 54 Siemens Gamesa 8 MW wind turbines.

In February, the developers announced that the full commissioning of the offshore wind farm was postponed until 2024 due to the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic both in Europe and in the Far East.

Despite this delay, the construction of the project continued with the arrival of the first turbine components, turbine blades, and a number of tower sections at the Port of Dundee in March.

Once fully operational, NnG will supply enough electricity for around 375,000 homes and offset over 400,000 tonnes of Co2 emissions each year.

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