Dutch marine and offshore services firm Boskalis said Tuesday it had secured a multidisciplinary role in the development of the Moray West offshore wind farm in Scotland.
On behalf of its client, Ocean Winds, Boskalis said it would carry out "a large number of the activities" contributing to the development of the offshore wind farm in the next 12 months. Ocean Winds is the 50:50 joint venture between EDP Renewables and ENGIE dedicated to offshore wind energy.
Boskalis said the contract was a sizable one, meaning it is worth between 50 million and 150 million euros.
The Moray West offshore wind farm is located off the east coast of Scotland in the Moray Firth.
The 882 MW wind farm will be able to power up to 640,000 households in the UK.
The development consists of 60 offshore wind turbines and two substations, all fixed on monopile foundations.
Based on the large turbine size (14.7 megawatts) and water depth (up to 54 meters), extremely large XXL monopiles weighing up to 2,000 tons each will be required for this development.
"Boskalis has been able to offer its broad range of its capabilities in this project and already carried out offshore geophysical site survey that also included survey for identification of unexploded ordnance," Boskalis said.
Also, in the coming months, Boskalis will transport a large number of the monopiles from the Far East to discharge at the port of Invergordon, near the project site. These monopiles – eight per voyage – will be transported on the heavy transport vessel White Marlin.
Before the installation of the foundations, Boskalis will carry out the seabed preparation activities by installing a layer of rock that will act as a filter and scour protection for the monopiles.
Afterward, Boskalis will deploy its DP crane vessel Bokalift 2 for the installation campaign. With its 4,000-ton crane the Bokalift 2 will install the monopiles using its new upending hinge and motion-compensated pile gripper.
Boskalis will also use a vibro-hammer on this project, in addition to a very large impact hammer. As a part of its campaign, Boskalis will also install two substations with their respective transition pieces.