Workers at the Tyneside yard of engineering firm Smulders have started work on the fit out of a major component for a forthcoming offshore wind farm in Scottish waters.
Around 250 staff at the Wallsend facility are under way with a substation platform and jacket foundation for the 1.1 gigawatt Inch Cape Offshore Wind Farm, which will be one of Scotland's single largest sources of renewable energy once it is completed in 2025. A consortium of Siemens Energy and lemants, a subsidiary of Smulders, is delivering the substation for the project which will feature up to 72 wind turbine generators.
The work is expected to take 18 months before the platform is moved out of the Tyne and to the wind farm location, about 15km off the Angus coast. The platform itself uses Siemens Energy's Offshore Transformer Module technology.
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Work has already started on Inch Cape’s 2.6 hectare onshore substation, built by Siemens and located on the site of the former Cockenzie Power Station and close to the existing transmission network connection.
For Smulders' Tyneside operation, the work follows the completion of an order in support of the Moray West Offshore Wind Farm, which was shipped out earlier this month. Again, as part of the Siemens Energy and lemants partnership, it built offshore transformer modules that will collect power from the 882MW wind farm's 60 turbines, located in the Moray Firth.
The two substation platforms each measure 35m x 30m and weigh around 1,400 tonnes. The work was seen as a boost to 海角视频 topside - or above the water - work after a gap of several years.
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At the time Siemens Energy and lemants were awarded the Inch Cape contract, Mark Pilling, vice president HV Grids at Siemens Energy, said: "The award of this contract is another step towards the 海角视频 achieving its target of 50GW of offshore wind by 2030. I’m incredibly proud of Siemens Energy and our partner Iemants. It is important that we support our customers by building innovative infrastructure that enables clean energy to be delivered to our homes and businesses across the country.
"Siemens Energy has a strong record of delivering offshore wind farm projects in Scotland and we will be actively working with Iemants and Inch Cape Offshore Limited to engage with the local supply chain on potential contract opportunities."