Giant wind milestone

The first jacket superstructures, which are to be installed as part of the foundations for the 1.1GW Seagreen Offshore Wind Farm, have arrived at Global Energy Group’s Port of Nigg in the Cromarty Firth.

Ian Cobban, chief operating officer for Global Energy Group, said: “We are delighted to welcome the jackets for the Seagreen project to our Port of Nigg facility. We are in the process of constructing an impressive, dedicated ring crane on our quayside to enable the loadout of these structures, supported by our onsite logistics and vessel support teams.”

He added: We look forward to working closely with all parties in the successful execution of the storage, marshalling and loadout of the jackets before their onward journey to the field.”

Who are the project players?

SSE Renewables is leading the development and construction of the £3bn joint venture project, supported by TotalEnergies, and will operate Seagreen on completion. Seaway 7 is managing the engineering, procurement, construction, and installation of Seagreen’s 114 wind turbine generator foundations and approximately 300km of associated inter-array cables.

The jackets delivery kickstarts the October campaign to install all 114 wind turbine foundations at the North Sea project site, 27km off the Scottish coast near Angus. After jacket foundations are installed, Vestas V164-10MW turbines will be positioned on each of the turbine bases.

The foundation installation campaign will last for a period of around 12 months and is supporting up to 141 skilled jobs at Port of Nigg associated with the marshalling, storage, and logistics for the foundation components.

When complete in 2023, Seagreen will be Scotland’s largest, and the world’s deepest, fixed-bottom offshore wind farm. It will be able to produce enough low-carbon electricity to power 1.6m homes.