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SPECIALIST SURVEYING FEATURE


CABLING


Cabling is also a major consideration. While clearly, distance to shore becomes an issue, the cable also needs to cross an increasingly dynamic range of offshore environments; seabed types, deep channels, man-made obstructions and so on. These environments are often inhospitable for cable burial ploughs, sleds and tracked burial RoVs and similarly the deployment of heavily armoured cables can be difficult. Cabling can be left susceptible to damage and requiring additional monitoring, protection and inspection.


Export cable route surveys form a large element of our work in the sector, and are often complex and time consuming. Numerous route options are evaluated, and the overall objective is to identify the most economic, safe and operationally sound route to shore. Generally, developers are fully prepared to award sizeable contracts to survey contractors to receive the detailed seabed information necessary to make these decisions, as cabling errors are typically incredibly costly to resolve.


The additional technical demand at challenging locations has resulted in osiris projects focusing their methodologies towards ultra-high resolution survey packages.


As the offshore wind market has evolved the developers have embraced the benefits of the detail now available whilst monitoring their assets, both WTG foundations and cables.


Osiris Projects www.osirisprojects.co.uk


interpretation challenges. One way the company addresses this issue is to adopt a collaborative approach to site and office based work, whereby commonly a project is followed through the acquisition, processing, interpretation and reporting phases by the same team.


MANY CHALLENGES


It is difficult to identify the most significant challenge in an industry that faces so many, but in osiris projects’ experience it is operating within the environmentally problematic areas which are so suited to offshore wind that generate the majority of issues. Offshore contractors await weather windows to perform myriad tasks. The risk of poor weather – the kind of conditions which would be best case scenario for an existing wind farm – during the summer months scheduled for installation can have a significant impact on a project.


While clearly there is no solution to bad weather, the risk can be mitigated through effective planning, personnel training, and vessel and equipment development.


Often the challenge is less about the physical weather conditions and more about the “fast-tracked” time schedules set out for developers and governments throughout Europe.


ROUND 3 DEVELOPMENTS


Round 3 presents a number of challenges. Being further offshore and in deeper water naturally increases resource requirements, and clearly the extraordinary scale creates numerous concerns. The traditional monopile design has a water depth limit of approximately 30m, and with Round 3 developments being constructed in water depths between 18- 60m the next generation of foundations such as tripod, jacket and gravity based designs will dominate. A few have also shown the potential for floating wind turbines. these designs typically demand a greater seabed footprint, which for us at Osiris projects means increased surveying requirements.


+44 (0)3333 441113 A NEW APPROACH TO AVIATION IMPACT ASSESSMENTS...


• Pre-planning site assessments • Field surveys (accurate quantification of impact) • Full aviation impact assessments • Impartial, expert advice from professionals with 20+ years’ experience in Communications Engineering & Air Traffic Management


Because measurement is better than prediction.


Aerostat Surveys Ltd. www.aerostat.co.uk


+44 (0)3333 441113 enquiries@aerostat.co.uk www.windenergynetwork.co.uk 107


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