5,100 tonne jacket installed at Scotland’s largest offshore wind farm

The offshore wind project Seagreen has reported the successful installation of the jacket in preparation for the substation topside, which is due to be installed in early 2022.
Engineered, constructed and installed by Petrofac and weighing in at a colossal 5,100 tonnes, the six-legged jacket is now fixed to the seabed, at a water depth of around 55m. It will play a critical role in safely supporting the offshore substation above the sea during Seagreen’s 25-year operational lifespan.
The jacket has a seabed footprint of 43m x 43m and has built-in tubing designed to guide the incoming 15 inter-array cables bringing the electricity generated by the turbines to the substation. In addition, the jacket also has tubing to guide the outgoing three export cables from the offshore substation to the seabed.
When completed in late 2022/early 2023, Seagreen will consist of 114 Vestas V164-10.0 MW turbines, the first of which was installed last week.
Situated around 27km off the Angus coast, the £3bn wind farm is a joint venture between SSE Renewables (49%) and TotalEnergies (51%).
At 1.1GW, Seagreen is Scotland’s largest renewable energy project and one of the biggest private investments in Scottish infrastructure. The wind farm will be capable of generating around 5,000 GWh of renewable energy annually which is enough clean and sustainable electricity to power more than 1.6m UK homes.
With the equivalent saving of around 1.6m tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions annually, Seagreen will make a significant contribution to Scotland’s and the UK’s net zero targets.
SSE Renewables is leading the development and construction of the Seagreen project and will operate Seagreen on completion for its expected 25-year lifetime.
“Hot on the heels of the installation of the first wind turbines comes another significant construction achievement with the offshore platform jacket being placed and secured safely on the seabed. Everyone involved can be justifiably proud of achievements like these which set the foundations for the project’s delivery over the next 12 or so months,” said John Hill, Seagreen Project Director.
Source and image: SSE