Community Offshore Wind, a joint venture between RWE Renewables and National Grid, has awarded Fugro an offshore survey contract to support site appraisal and concept design activities in the New York Bight.
Operating from a local port, Fugro is dedicating two vessels to the project. Survey teams will utilise hull-mounted sensors to generate full-coverage surface and subsurface geodata over the lease to a nominal depth of 15 metres below the seafloor.
While deeper subsurface geodata will still be required in targeted areas for foundation engineering, Fugro’s survey approach could enable Community Offshore Wind to commence a geotechnical programme ahead of standard development schedules.
Survey work detailing geophysical and environmental conditions within the 510-square-kilometre lease area will start this year, with the majority being executed in 2023.
This accelerated project schedule is expected to help Community Offshore Wind to reduce levelised cost of energy and realise the site’s offshore wind potential.
Survey geodata and consultancy services for the project will be delivered through Fugro’s regional centre of expertise for offshore wind, located in Norfolk, Virginia.
In the New York Bight auction, RWE and National Grid secured the OCS-A 0539 lease area with a winning bid of USD 1.1 billion and plan to have the project in operation by the end of the decade.
The awarded seabed has the potential to host 3 GW of capacity, enough to power 1.1 million households, more than double than estimated in a base scenario by the US Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM).
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