Offshore Update 11th April 2018
HAPPENING ELSEWHERE
ALPHA VENTUS (DE01) Part of a nacelle panel of one of the Adwen M5000 turbines fell into the sea for 'unexplained' reasons. Investigations are ongoing. 6th Apr 2018
BORSSELE V (NL88) Two Towers BV (Van Oord, Investri Offshore and Green Giraffe) announced as winner of the tender for the Borssele V site 6th Apr 2018
ARKONA (DE46) Installation of the offshore transformer was completed by Oleg Strashnov. 9th Apr 2018
ATLANTIC CITY (US69) The state Legislature will vote on several clean energy bills including the bill A2485/S1217 to revive the project. 12th Apr 2018
WALNEY EX. (UK63) Brave Tern expected to arrive on site on 12th/13th April to carry out maintenance works at turbine positions C03 and F04. 12th Apr 2018
GERMAN TENDER (DE2K) Fraunhofer IWES will conduct exploratory work for proposed offshore wind sites in the North and Baltic Sea from September 2018. Sept 2018
(EOWDC turbine installation. Source: Vattenfall) Click on a project name, turbine, vessel or map to find out more on the 4C Offshore website
LOOKING FORWARD
MORAY EAST VARIATION GETS GREEN LIGHT
Scottish Ministers’ have approved the application made by
Moray Offshore Windfarm (East) Ltd (MOWL) last Decem-
ber to vary the consent for the 950MW Moray East Off-
shore Wind Farm. The successful variation request includ-
ed increasing the capacity of the turbines from 6-8MW to
10MW and increasing the capacity of the MacColl site,
one of the three project areas, from 372MW to 500MW.
Scottish Ministers consider that the amendment will
reduce the environmental impacts by utilising a more
powerful turbine model enabling a reduction in the num-
ber of turbines. MHI Vestas has been selected as the pre-
ferred supplier to deliver and install 100 V164-9.5MW
turbines for the project. This is subject to financial close
which MOWL are hoping to achieve this autumn. MOWL’s
sister project, the 85 turbine Moray West wind farm is
currently preparing a pre-application consultation report
with the aim of beginning the consent process this year.
USA’S FIRST FLOATING WIND FARM IN LIMBO
The fate of the 12MW Maine Aqua Ventus Floating Wind
Farm now hinges on whether the state regulators vote to
reopen a power purchase agreement (PPA) awarded in
2014 for $230/MWh. State regulators said that changing
economic factors warranted a review and deliberations
are anticipated by late April. As the project’s financing
activities reach a critical stage alterations to the PPA
would have a significant impact but if reopened the pro-
ject is likely to become Americas first floating wind farm.
Elsewhere, BOEM has published a Call for Information and
Nominations to gauge interest in four commercial wind
energy leases within the New York Bight. BOEM will ac-
cept nominations until 29th May and a lease auction is
scheduled for late 2019. Massachusetts also announced a
Proposed Sale Notice (PSN) for two Lease areas on 11th
April. Entities wishing to participate as a bidder must re-
spond to the Notice within the 60-day comment period.
ØRSTED BATTLES BURBO BANK BIRD PROBLEM
Ørsted is facing a bird guano problem at the 254.2MW
Burbo Bank Extension and has applied for a license to
deploy deterrents at the project which has just completed
its first year of operations. Ørsted stated that there are
increasing numbers of cormorants resting on the 32 V164-
8.0MW turbines ‘resulting in very large volumes of bird
guano on the foundations which requires extensive clean-
ing and presents a health and safety risk for technicians.’
Ørsted would like to add plastic fences to the foundations
which will make it more difficult for birds to take off and
2m long perches which extend out over the water. The
latter approach is proving ‘hugely successful’ at the Burbo
Bank and Anholt wind farms. A year on from commission-
ing, Ofgem has awarded an offshore transmission license
to Diamond Transmission Partners for 20 years. Ofgem is
also in the final stages of selecting the preferred OFTO’s
for the Rampion, Race Bank and Galloper wind farms.
UK WIND FARMS MAKING HEADWAY
The Saipem 7000 will commence installation of the
offshore Reactive Compensation Substation (RCS), the
three Offshore Substation (OSS) jackets and the first
topside from 12th April until mid-May for the 1.2GW
Hornsea Project One wind farm. The remaining topsides
will be installed later in 2018. So far 44 monopiles and
17 transition pieces have been installed for the 174 SWT
-7.0-154 turbines.
Pre-piling works for the wind turbine foundations at the
714MW East Anglia ONE offshore wind farm has kicked
off with the arrival of Royal Boskalis Westminister's
heavy lift vessel, Bokalift. The 102 piles each weigh in
the region of 360 tons and will support the three legged
jacket foundations at the array. Installation of the 102
SWT-7.0-154 turbines is currently scheduled for summer
2019 with commissioning in 2020.
The first turbine has been successfully installed by Pa-
cific Orca at the European Offshore Wind Deployment
Centre (EOWDC). MHI Vestas specially designed the nine
V164-8.4 MW turbines and two V164-8.8 MW turbines
which have a tip height of 191m and a 164m rotor diam-
eter. The enhanced 8.8MW turbines are the first of their
kind to be installed on a commercial project and will
boost the wind farm output to 93.2MW.
The developers of three Scottish offshore wind farms
have received authorization from Scottish Ministers to
extend the timeframe for the Commencement of Devel-
opment due to delays caused by the long running judi-
cial challenge by the RSPB. Originally the wind farms had
a commencement deadline of October 2019; 5 years
since the consents were granted in 2014. Developers of
the Inch Cape wind farm now have an extra two years to
commence development by 10th October 2021. Similar-
ly, the Neart na Gaoithe and Seagreen Alpha and Bravo
projects have a new deadline of 10th October 2022.
MARUBENI JOINS TAIWANESE WIND FARM
Taiwan Green Power (TGP) has signed a deal with Japan-
based Marubeni Corporation to develop an offshore wind
farm to the west of Changhua County, Taiwan. The
600MW wind farm represents a total investment
of NT$86.5 billion and the Project Environmental Impact
Assessment was passed by the Environmental Protection
Administration in December 2017. TGP now owns a 50%
stake in the project, Marubeni 30%, and Taiwan Cogenera-
tion and Tien Li Offshore Wind Technology make up the
remaining 20%. Taiwan recently increased its offshore
wind target from 3.5GW to 5.5GW by 2025 and the gov-
ernment plans to hold an open auction in June 2018 for
the additional 2GW. Marubeni is also a main stakeholder
in Norfolk-based Seajacks who own a fleet of jackups for
the offshore wind industry - assets that could be beneficial
to the Taiwanese market which currently lacks jackups.
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