SeaRoc to provide two Masts to Forewind on Round 3 offshore wind farm

SeaRoc, part of the Natural Power group, has been selected to project manage the supply, installation and commissioning of two lattice meteorological towers in accordance with a specification provided by Forewind – the consortium responsible for developing UK Round 3 offshore wind farm site Dogger Bank.

The announcement is part of a wider offering by Fred Olsen United AS to supply Forewind with the innovative suction bucket foundation designed by Universal Foundation A/S, and fabricated by Belfast shipyard Harland and Wolff, both of which are Fred.Olsen related companies. The foundation design was identified as part of the Carbon Trust’s collaborative Offshore Wind Accelerator programme.

SeaRoc will provide both design and third party approvals for the mast and manage all procurement and fabrication. The marine engineering company will then manage logistics and transportation, installation at the platform and commissioning of equipment on and offshore. A key part of the project will also be the management of all Health & Safety Requirements in relation to the masts and SeaRoc will provide this from the Consultancy part of the business.

SeaRoc’s MD, Eric Briar, welcomed the announcement stating: "We are very proud to be supporting Fred Olsen United AS and Forewind on this innovative project. We will be working very closely with the customer and the wider consortium to ensure we deliver a quality product on schedule reducing requirements for man-hours offshore. Driving down costs of offshore wind energy is a key goal for us and we believe this solution will help developers achieve this."

Earlier this year, the Natural Power group also supplied a ZephIR 300 wind lidar to Forewind on Dogger Bank to provide the first high-quality wind data measurements close to the site. ZephIR 300 supplies wind data from just 10 metres up to 200 metres from installed height and will augment the information collected on the new masts.

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