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.

+44 (0)1502 307 037 info@4coffshore.com