Scrabster Harbour Trust welcomes new milestone for floating wind farm
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Scrabster Harbour Trust has welcomed the latest breakthrough for a floating wind farm off the north coast of Caithness.
Work to gather wind, wave and seabed data from across the Pentland Floating Offshore Wind Farm (PFOWF) offshore site area and cable corridor was carried out from 2021 to the summer of 2023.
Its completion has been described as "a significant milestone" in the development of the 100MW project.
The wind farm is being planned by Highland Wind Limited, which is majority owned by a fund managed by Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners, at a site some 7.5km offshore from Dounreay. There will be six turbines, up to 300m high to their blade tips.
Almost two years ago the company signed a memorandum of understanding with Scrabster Harbour Trust to work together on the development of operations and maintenance services and facilities.
Trust manager Sandy Mackie said: “The successful completion of the Pentland survey campaigns is welcomed by Scrabster harbour.
“The port has been utilised for each of the campaigns, demonstrating the kind of work and benefits offshore wind projects can bring to the area and surrounding community, even in the development stage.
“We look forward to continuing to work with the Pentland team on the development of the project’s operations and maintenance base and look forward to continuing to strengthen this relationship in the years to come.”
Detailed geophysical surveys were carried out using a combination of sonar, acoustic, seismic and magnetic techniques.
Project director Richard Copeland said: “This is a significant milestone for any offshore wind development, and we are pleased to have safely and successfully completed a number of survey and monitoring campaigns over the past three years that give us the data we need to finalise design and prepare for construction.
“We now have a best-in-class data set to help us meet the engineering challenges of this pioneering project.
“We are especially grateful to our supply chain partners Ocean Infinity, Fugro and Geoquip Marine and key local stakeholders such as Scrabster harbour for helping us complete the work to such a high standard.”
