The SSE (Scottish and Southern Energy plc), a multinational energy company headquartered in Perth, Scotland, has installed the world’s deepest offshore wind turbine off the east coast of Scotland.
The installation was undertaken on the 9th of April by the energy company, as part of the $3.7 billion Seagreen offshore wind project. In this joint venture between SSE and TotalEnergies, with SSE taking responsibility for the project’s construction and TotalEnergies for its operation.
The wind farm will be made up of a total of 114 wind turbines, with this being the 112th. Its final wind turbine foundation is expected to be installed by SSE in April.
The turbine weighs 2000 tonnes and was installed at a depth of 58 metres. The previous record for the deepest turbine foundation was also at the Seagreen project, installed at a depth of 57.4 metres in October 2022.
Alistair Phillips-Davies, Chief Executive of SSE, said of the installation, “Seagreen is an important part of SSE’s £12.5 billion Net Zero Acceleration Plan, through which we’re investing £7m a day in critical low-carbon infrastructure that will help the UK achieve energy independence. By the end of the decade, we have plans to invest over £24 billion in Britain alone.”
Each foundation will support a Vestas V164-10MW turbine. Once completed, the windfarm will have a total capacity of 1.1GW and be capable of generating around 5TWh. According to SSE, this is enough to power 1.6 million UK homes. The project began generating power in August 2022.
According to John Hill, Seagreen’s Project Director, the installation is “boosting the UK’s energy security by enabling the UK to benefit from the strong winds available far out in the North Sea.”
SSE holds big future ambitions for the UK, Alistair Davies added, “thanks to a strong and stable policy framework, the UK has established itself as the world leader on offshore wind and SSE Renewables is building more offshore wind than anyone on the planet. But we want to do more and now is the time to accelerate if we are to achieve the UK’s target of 50GW of offshore wind by 2030.”
Sources: Power Technology, SSE
