The Norwegian Geotechnical Institute (NGI) said Wednesday it had won "a significant" contract from the EnBW and BP joint venture for delivery of geo-consulting and laboratory testing services related to the development on the JV's Morgan, Mona, and Morven offshore wind farms, offshore the UK.
The Morgan and Mona project sites are located in the Irish Sea, approximately 30 km from the coast of England/Wales.
With a combined area of about 800 km2, they have a potential installed capacity of up to 3 GW. Once completed, the two offshore wind farms are expected to produce enough electricity to power the equivalent of around 3.4 million UK households.
The Morven site, located in the North Sea approximately 60 km from the coast of Scotland, covers a similar area. It has the potential to have an installed capacity of up to 3 GW, which is expected to generate enough to power the equivalent of around 3 million UK homes.
Over the coming years, NGI will provide geoscience and geotechnical engineering services for the three wind farms through various project phases. This includes integrated ground model development, survey planning and supervision, and extensive advanced laboratory testing followed by interpretation of data for engineering design.
NGI will be supported by GEO for delivery of a comprehensive soil and rock laboratory testing program. NGI will also continue its collaboration with SAND Geophysics (SAND) and the British Geological Survey (BGS) as part of this project.
Richard Haydock, Programme Director at BP, said NGI’s work would help BP reduce uncertainties related to foundation design.
Burkhard Römhild, Project Director at EnBW said: “Given the inhomogeneous Irish Sea geology we appreciate the work and expertise of NGI to provide essential input data for our foundation design. This will be instrumental in designing the best foundation solution as part of the overall wind farm design on our way to contributing to Britain’s ambitious offshore wind growth targets.”