Ocean Installer, a marine construction and operations provider, has been appointed by Cerulean Winds to join the alliance of companies developing the 1 GW Aspen floating offshore wind farm in the central North Sea.
Ocean Installer will provide engineering expertise and installation services, post-FID, for the mooring system installation, inter-array cables, and marshalling of the floating units during the fabrication phase, tow-out, and hook-up.
According to Cerulean Winds, Ocean Installer’s addition to the alliance is vital to driving down the cost of installation. The company’s existing fleet of vessels and skilled workforce, developed over decades working in subsea oil and gas construction, can be transferred to the floating wind sector without significant adaptation, said Cerulean Winds.
“Using OI’s capabilities, we believe we can develop a standardized process to cut installation costs and make FLOW’s Levelized Cost of Energy (LCOE) comparable to fixed offshore wind,” said Dan Jackson , Founding Director of Cerulean Winds.
In addition, Ocean Installer will work in conjunction with fellow alliance member Haventus, owners of the Port of Ardersier, on dry storage of the structures, batched installation, and quick connect/disconnect systems to optimise processes.
Cerulean Winds is also developing the Beech and Cedar floating offshore wind farms. Once built, the three projects will comprise over 300 wind turbines.
The 1 GW Aspen site will be developed first, providing new offshore wind capacity to meet the UK government’s 50 GW target by 2030.
Located approximately 100 kilometres from the shore, the 333-square-kilometre site is positioned to connect to the UK grid via an HVAC transmission system.
The project is planned to connect to the onshore grid as early as 2028, with the National Energy System Operator (NESO) designating the Fetteresso substation in Aberdeenshire as the preferred connection point.