Offshore Wind Power Limited (OWPL) – a consortium consisting of TotalEnergies, RIDG and Corio – has awarded a front-end engineering design (FEED) contract to Danish architecture, engineering and consulting company Ramboll for its 2GW West of Orkney wind farm project, located around 30km from Orkney’s western shoreline and 25km from Sutherland’s northern coast.
The agreement will see Ramboll supply technical information for the development, such as total steel quantities and technical design requirements to aid the consortium in selecting the most suitable foundations for the fixed-bottom project.
It will further work with OWPL to select options for supply chains which will support the fabrication of the project’s foundations – and will additionally offer CAPEX estimations for the fabrication process.
The FEED phase will also see the development of blueprints for the project’s monopile and jacket foundations which will sit at depths of up to 70 metres – supporting 125 wind turbines.
The value of the contract was not disclosed.
West of Orkney’s construction is expected to begin in 2027 with electricity production anticipated by 2030. Upon completion, the wind farm will be able to power more than two million homes – according to OWPL.
Ramboll is also delivered a pre-FEED contract on Thistle Wind Partners’ (TWP) Bowdun Offshore wind farm in March this year. The contract from TWP, a consortium involving DEME, Qair and Apiravi, saw Ramboll working in a similar capacity to the West of Orkney project where it focused primarily on developing substructures for the project’s turbines.
The West of Orkney Windfarm was the first of the 20 ScotWind projects to lodge its offshore consent applications with the Scottish Government last year.
Its onshore plans were approved by the Highland Council’s North Planning Applications Committee earlier this year.
The project’s export cable will connect to the grid on the north Caithness coast before connecting to a substation at Spittal in Caithness.
The project aims to deliver first power in 2029.
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