The West of Orkney wind farm has brought in a new PhD student to help improve access to the project site with better weather forecasts.
Hamish Drain, 24, from Edinburgh will investigate use of satellite data and potentially AI and machine learning to develop optimised local forecasts for the site using large domain data.
His work aims to enable work to take place on more days of the year by extending the “weather windows” available when construction begins later this decade.
The results will be specific to the West of Orkney wind farm, which lie 20 miles (30km) off the coast in waters up to 200ft (60m) deep; however, the methodology will be applicable to the offshore wind sector as whole.
Drain will be based at the Orkney Renewable Innovation Campus (ORIC) in Stromness as part of his three-and-a-half-year PhD programme.
The project is being funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) Doctoral Training Partnership and is being sponsored by the project developers. West of Orkney wind farm project director Stuart McAuley said: “Our project is a pioneering wind farm which will include some of the deepest fixed bottom foundations ever installed, in one of the windiest sites in Europe.
“Any measures which can improve our understanding and forecasting of wave conditions and weather on site could potentially extend the ‘weather windows’ for installation and lead to the project being delivered faster, cheaper and at lower risk.
“This information will also be vital when the project becomes operational and local teams will require access to maintain the farm.
Weather windows
The 2GW West of Orkney wind farm is being developed in collaboration between Corio Generation, TotalEnergies and RIDG.
Construction on the project is expected to begin in 2027, with first power expected in 2029 and full commissioning in 2030.
The West of Orkney wind farm was the first of the 20 ScotWind projects to lodge its offshore consent applications with the Scottish Government last year.
In addition, the project recently provided the FutureSkills apprenticeship programme in Caithness with £50,000 to support workforce development in Caithness, Sutherland and Orkney.
The PhD will be supervised by Dr David Woolf, who said: “The West of Orkney wind farm is a challenging project, and our ambition is to find ways to improve accessibility – so the right people and the right vessels can access the site on as many operational days as possible.
“Alongside his climate work, Hamish’s studies may also look at technological ideas which can enable access in poorer conditions and local ways of working which can maximise installation capability and readiness when the conditions allow.
“Our discoveries here will augment our understanding of the challenges the industry faces and will be useful to other offshore wind projects in Scotland and beyond.”
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