The final turbine for the Aberdeen Bay offshore wind-farm has been installed – with the project recording what is believed to be the world’s fastest installation of a gigantic, suction-bucket anchor.
The turbine installation was carried out over the holiday weekend amid some of the best weather seen in Scotland and comes just nine weeks after the first foundation for the 11-turbine scheme was deployed in the North Sea.
The 93.2MW wind farm is scheduled to generate first power this summer. It will generate the equivalent of more than 70% of Aiberdeen’s domestic electricity demand.**
A spokesman for the Scandinavian developer said: “This is a magnificent offshore engineering feat for a project that involves industry-first technology and innovative approaches to the design and construction.
“The erection of the final turbine is a significant milestone, and with the completion of array cable installation just a few days away, we now move on to the final commissioning phase of the wind farm prior to first power later this summer.
“One of our 1,800 tonne suction-bucket jacket foundation anchors was installed in what we believe is a world record of 2 hours, 40 minutes from the time the installation vessel entered the offshore site until deployment was complete.
“Full credit goes to the expertise of our project team and contractors who have worked collaboratively and vigorously to achieve this remarkable milestone in such a short timescale. As a flagship project for North-east Scotland, this helps underline the region’s status as Europe’s energy capital”.
** Aiberdeen is the Scots name for what in English is translated as ‘Aberdeen’.
*Scottish Energy News operates an all-inclusive linguistic policy and recognises all three of Scotland’s languages – English, Scots and Gaelic (unlike the Scottish Parliament); eg ** ‘Cooncil’ is the Scots language word for ‘council’ and is not pejorative; etc..
Dictionar o’ the Scots Leid / Dictionary of the Scots Language – http://goo.gl/7xo5Bk
The Northern Sights of New Aiberdeen: with apologies to http://aboutaberdeen.com/Northern-Lights-Of-Old-Aberdeen
See also; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-SNODgG0Fd4
29 May 2018
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