Giant foundations for offshore wind farm dock at city

Huge foundations for the country’s largest wind farm off the coast of Angus have been seen making their way past Dundee at the weekend.

The jacket superstructures are to be installed in the North Sea, 27km off the coast of Angus.

It comes as part of the 1.1GW Seagreen project which will see 113 wind turbines in place at the site.

Delivery for the project began in August, when the first jacket superstructures arrived at the Port of Nigg in the Cromarty Firth.

After the foundations are installed, Vestas V164-10 MW turbines will be positioned on the turbine bases.

However, the giant structures are currently docked in Dundee.

Construction work is estimated to take up to 12 months with the wind farm set to be complete in 2023.

Seagreen is a £3 billion joint venture between Totalenergies and SSE Renewables.

The 1.1GW Seagreen

Offshore Wind Farm will be Scotland’s largest – and the world’s deepest – fixedbottom offshore wind farm.

At 1,075 megawatts, it will be able to produce enough low-carbon electricity to power 1.6m homes, or the equivalent of almost every home and business in Edinburgh and Glasgow combined.

Subsea cables will bring the electricity from the wind farm to Carnoustie.

It will then transfer via 19km underground cables to the Tealing substation.

It has been under construction since March 2020.

The work is expected to create up to 30 new jobs in Angus, including at the Port of Montrose.

Once the wind farm is commissioned, the Seagreen Operations and Maintenance base in Montrose is expected to provide up to 120 full-time jobs.

The project is also supporting around 140 skilled jobs at Port of Nigg in Tain, near Inverness.

HUGE VISITORS: The foundations for the offshore wind farm sail past Broughty Ferry. Picture by Adam le Grice.