A campaign to collect over two years’ worth of wind data crucial for the development of the 3,600MW Ossian floating offshore wind farm has been successfully completed.
The project, located 84 kilometers off the east coast of Scotland, involved the deployment of two Floating Lidar buoys in August 2022 to survey the 858 square kilometer site. The buoys used profiling lasers to measure wind speed and direction at ten different sample heights, ranging from the surface of the North Sea to a maximum height of 300 meters.
The data collected is vital for assessing the wind resource potential across the site and informing the design of the project, which is one of the largest areas offered by Crown Estate Scotland in the ScotWind leasing round. Ossian is a joint venture between SSE Renewables (40%), Marubeni (30%), and Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners (30%).
Lucas Neidhardt, Ossian’s metocean and wind measurement campaign manager, commented: “Gathering this information is vital to predicting energy yield, and therefore completing the campaign is another significant accomplishment for the project. Operating in the North Sea is not without its technical and environmental challenges and this campaign was no different. We are pleased with what has been achieved and confident of the quality of the data gathered.”
The completion of the wind measurement campaign is a crucial step, but the delivery of the Ossian project will still depend on securing planning consent, a route to market, and a final investment decision. If approved, the wind farm would have a capacity of up to 3.6GW, enough to power up to six million homes annually.
In addition to wind data, the project has also conducted a 12-month metocean campaign, collecting millions of data points related to wave heights, currents, tides, and sediment movements. This data will support engineering design, environmental impact assessments, and predictions for conditions during construction and deployment.
The Ossian project is expected to provide significant economic benefits, with a multi-million-pound fund dedicated to supporting local investments and orders.
