Seagreen support contract for wind turbine foundations work awarded to Northern Marine Services

Director of NMS, John Small, at The Port of Nigg

Developers of the Seagreen Offshore Wind Farm have appointed Wick-based marine inspection company Northern Marine Services (Scotland) Ltd (NMS) to support the delivery and installation of the project’s offshore wind turbine foundations out of the Port of Nigg in Scotland’s Cromarty Firth.

The awarding of the contract follows the announcement in February that Global Energy Group’s (GEG) the Port of Nigg has been selected as the marshalling, storage and logistics base for the 114 wind turbine foundations which are destined for the 1,075 MW offshore wind farm being constructed in Scotland’s Firth of Forth.

Seagreen’s foundation and inter-array cable engineering, procurement, construction and installation contractor, Seaway 7, appointed the Port of Nigg on behalf of development partners SSE Renewables and TotalEnergies.

Under the new support contract, NMS will work on-site at the Port of Nigg on behalf of Seagreen to oversee the marshalling and installation works being carried out GEG on the 114 turbine super-structures.

The Seagreen client representatives will liaise with Subsea 7 on site and have oversight of load-ins and load-outs of the wind turbine foundations and site activities.

The 1,075MW Seagreen project is located 27km off the coast of Angus in the North Sea and is a £3bn joint venture between TotalEnergies (51%) and SSE Renewables (49%).

John Small, Director of NMS said: “We’re delighted to have signed this contract to provide client representatives for Seagreen and look forward to providing an oversight for the project team.”

”Our team bring extensive experience of marine and lifting operations for offshore windfarms having previously worked on a number of maritime projects including both Beatrice and Moray East Offshore Wind farms.

Project Director for Seagreen, John Hill said:  “The client representatives from NMS are the project’s eyes and ears at the Port of Nigg, there to verify the works that are being undertaken.

“These are important roles so we’re pleased that the job will be done by a team with proven credentials from previous offshore wind farm projects.”

Seagreen will be Scotland’s largest and deepest offshore wind farm when complete. SSE Renewables is leading the development and construction of the joint venture project, supported by TotalEnergies, and will operate Seagreen on completion. First power is expected by early 2022 with the offshore wind farm expected to enter commercial operation in 2022/23.

The wind farm will provide around 5,000 GWh annually of clean renewable energy, supplying the energy needs of around 1.6 million homes and saving around 2 million tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions annually.