Bibby HydroMap has started an unexploded ordnance (UXO) survey of Vattenfall’s Hollandse Kust Zuid I & II wind sites in the Dutch North Sea.
Following a competitive bid process, the UK-based seabed survey company was awarded the contract in early 2019.
Using a multi-vessel approach, Bibby Tethra and Bibby Athena will together acquire over 4,000-line km of high-density magnetometer, side scan sonar, multibeam echosounder and parametric sub-bottom data over the Dutch wind farms.
Each vessel will be equipped with a comparable suite of sensors, including dual EIVA ScanFish ROTVs each accommodating four magnetometers designed to provide a dense magnetometer dataset across key locations of the site, the company said.
”Ships will be departing for the wind farm area in the coming months. The ship crews will remain at sea for several days and work in shifts. We are really starting to work on site now. That marks a new phase in the project. We have commissioned a study of the seabed conditions so that in the near future we will know exactly what the seabed is like and where we can place the foundations for the wind turbines. The companies we have under contract have a lot of experience in this and we are happy to have them on board,” Ian Bremner , Project Director of Hollandse Kust Zuid, said.
Located 22km from the coast of the Netherlands, the 700MW Hollandse Kust Zuid I & II will be the world’s first offshore wind farms to be built without public subsidy once completed in 2022.