Sarens PSG has launched a major study from its newly established Offshore Wind Centre of Excellence in Aberdeen, focusing on enabling the rapid and cost-effective deployment of floating wind turbines in the North Sea. The company has been commissioned by the BlueFloat Energy and Nadara Partnership to develop innovative solutions for transporting floating wind foundations from land to sea.
The study will examine methods to deploy completed floating wind structures directly from construction or production facilities to operational sites, targeting production-line scale volumes over multiple operational years. The research aims to identify key cost, risk, and scheduling factors, as well as assess the impact of these elements on port infrastructure in the context of the partnership's floating wind projects.
Sarens PSG will collaborate with its partner Sarens NV, leveraging the engineering expertise of the larger Sarens group for the study.
Steve Clark, Managing Director of Sarens PSG, stated: “Sarens PSG is excited to continue our collaboration with the BlueFloat Energy and Nadara Partnership on this groundbreaking study, conducted from our newly established Offshore Wind Centre of Excellence in Aberdeen's Energy Transition Zone. While deployment techniques have been trialled in smaller-scale demonstrator projects, scaling these processes to achieve major deployments with next-generation solutions at pace and cost-effectively will be transformative for the industry.
He added: “This investment in innovative research underlines the partnership's commitment to delivering successful floating offshore wind projects that are pivotal to global energy transition efforts and achieving net-zero targets. It has the potential to be an absolute game-changer for the sector.”
The BlueFloat Energy and Nadara Partnership is advancing a pipeline of up to 3.8GW of floating offshore wind capacity across five projects in Scotland. These include the 1.2GW Bellrock project east of Aberdeen, the 900MW Broadshore project north of Fraserburgh, and the 1.5GW Stromar project east of Caithness, developed in collaboration with Ørsted. The partnership has also secured seabed exclusivity for two innovation projects, Sinclair and Scaraben, located near Broadshore.
David Robertson, UK Portfolio Director for the partnership, noted: “These studies represent a significant step forward in the development of our pipeline of floating offshore wind projects in Scotland and will not only deepen our understanding of some of the most pertinent technical challenges facing our industry but also leverage local expertise through the regional supply chain.
