INDUSTRY NEWS
MARINE REPORT RECOMMENDS INSTALLATION OF CONCRETE GRAVITY BASES FOR DEEP WATER OFFSHORE WINDFARMS
The impact on the marine environment of offshore windfarms is an important issue. A new report supports the inert placement of concrete gravity bases against the disruption of driving steel piles into the sea bed.
MARINE REPORT
The report, ‘A Review of Marine Environmental Considerations Associated with Concrete Gravity Base Foundations in Offshore Wind Developments’ by marine consultancy MarineSpace Ltd with specialist input from ABPmer and Fjordr, examines the environmental impact of concrete gravity bases with particular reference to the issue of placing offshore wind farms in the deeper waters associated with the Round 3 offshore renewable programme.
Commissioned by MPA The Concrete Centre and the Offshore Wind Gravity Foundation Interest Group, it focuses on the potential environment footprint of concrete gravity bases compared with other foundation solutions for offshore windfarms.
seabed habitats and relatively benign water conditions. For these sites steel monopoles have been the
foundation construction of choice. However, the water depths of 20m – 60m, more exposed conditions of up to 200km from shore and mixture of seabed types of the Round 3 sites will call for a different construction approach such as concrete gravity bases, tripod, steel jacket, suction caisson and floating platform.
CONCRETE GRAVITY BASES
Concrete gravity bases, due to their robustness
TENDERS
To date, The Crown Estate has offered five rounds of tendering for offshore windfarms. These include Round 1, Round 2, Scotland, Round 1 and 2 extensions and Round 3. The majority of Round 1 and 2 windfarm sites are located within 12 nautical miles of the UK coastline and are typified by shallow water, sediment
BMT NIGEL GEE HITS HAT-TRICK IN 10 DAYS
BMT Nigel Gee Ltd, a subsidiary of BMT Group Ltd, the leading international maritime design, engineering and risk management consultancy, is pleased to announce that three new Windfarm Support Vessels built to a BMT design have been launched over a period of ten days from three different shipyards, two in Europe and one in Asia.
VESSELS The vessels range from a 19.4m propeller driven conventional catamaran design to a 26m Extreme Semi-Swath (XSS), fitted with active motion damping systems consisting of T-Foils and interceptors.
Sea trials for two of the vessels have been completed, both of which have met all expected performance criteria. The XSS is currently in transit to the open sea in order for trials to commence in the coming weeks.
14
www.windenergynetwork.co.uk
Ed Dudson, Technical Director of BMT Nigel Gee, comments: “To finally see our designs come to life and take to the water is an extremely proud moment - so for it to happen three times in ten days is fantastic. We are confident that these vessels will set a new benchmark for quality and capability in the offshore
and minimum maintenance, look set to have the advantage over other solutions when the harsh marine conditions of the deeper waters of Round 3 are considered. In addition the report has found that, when compared with other foundation solutions, concrete gravity foundations offer particular environmental benefits.
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100 |
Page 101 |
Page 102 |
Page 103 |
Page 104 |
Page 105 |
Page 106 |
Page 107 |
Page 108