Ground-works in preparation for construction of the £2.6 billion Beatrice wind farm in the Moray Firth are progressing, with Ecosse Subsea Systems having completed a 14-day seabed clearance on the project about eight miles off the Caithness coast.
Ecosse deployed its SCAR2 sea-bed plough on behalf of client Siem Offshore Contractors. Several hundred boulders were removed over a 10-mile route in water depths of up to 180-ft over terrain which was predominantly sand and gravel overlying stiff clay.
When completed in 2019, the 84-turbine Beatrice wind farm will power approximately 450,000 homes on completion in 2019. It is being developed by Subsea 7 and Siemens.
Mark Gillespie, Ecosse Subsea managing director, said: “Our SCAR2 system is now well established as a highly efficient and economic method of clearing and preparing the seabed as the first stage of major wind farm construction projects.”
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