The installation of the final foundation (or 'jacket' as is the industry term) by main contractor Seaway 7 follows an 18-month campaign to install all 114 turbines at the 1.1GW Seagreen site. This included the installation on Easter Sunday of the world's deepest fixed-bottom wind turbine foundation at a depth of 58.6 metres (approximately 188 feet) – marking a world record in offshore wind engineering.
As the main contractor, Seaway7 has managed the engineering, procurement, construction, and installation of the wind turbine generator foundations and is installing approximately 300km of associated inner-array cables. The company led the installation of Seagreen's 114th and final jacket foundation on late Thursday afternoon when the Saipem 7000 – the semisubmersible crane vessel – lifted the last of the 2,000-tonne turbine foundations into place.
Each foundation will support a Vestas V164-10 MW turbine. First power was achieved in August 2022 with the offshore wind farm expected to enter commercial operation later this year.
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The Seagreen Wind Farm is a joint venture project between SSE Renewables and TotalEnergies. SSE Renewables is leading the construction of the £3bn renewable energy project which will be Scotland's largest and the world's deepest fixed bottom offshore wind farm when complete. SSE Renewables will also operate the wind farm on completion.
Once operational Seagreen's 114 Vestas V164-10.0 MW turbines will be capable of generating around 5,000 GWh of renewable energy annually – enough clean and sustainable electricity to power more than 1.6m UK homes.
Seagreen's Project Director, John Hill, said: "Installing all 114 jackets is one of the most significant milestones in the project. The Seagreen team have now installed more suction caisson foundations than any other offshore wind farm and pushed forward the boundaries of this technology. The Seagreen team and Seaway7 have excelled in the delivery of this complex scope of work which has resulted from outstanding effort on the installation phase by teams including those at Ramboll, Saipem and Global Energy Nigg. A huge thanks on behalf of SSE and Totalenergies shareholders for this achievement."
Lloyd Duthie, Vice President UK, Ireland and Asia at Seaway7 said: "We are immensely proud to be playing a significant role in the construction of the momentous Seagreen offshore wind farm. This achievement is the culmination of more than three years of hard work since the contract award to Seaway7 in June 2020, and sets a new benchmark for jacket fabrication and transportation of this scale in the offshore wind industry."
David Mitchell, Seagreen Project Director at Seaway7 said: "This is a significant milestone for Seagreen and Seaway7. Good collaboration between all parties has been instrumental in the safe and timely execution of this complex and challenging project. We look forward to the completion of the cable installation in the coming months to conclude our full EPCI scope."
