SSE Renewables has appointed ABPmer to deliver the preliminary site condition report for the Arklow Bank offshore wind project in Ireland.
ABPmer will also manage the associated metocean survey which will be used in conjunction with new numerical modeling to refine the preliminary results and inform a final site condition report.
According to SSE, the reports provide a range of metocean statistics, as well as a description of the seabed morphology, sediment transport patterns and a high-level assessment of scour potential.
This provides a basis for engineering design and operational planning, which will be further refined and validated from the early planning stages through to final design, the company said.
All the information is used to support the design, installation and decommissioning phases of the 520MW project.
“We regularly undertake metocean and morphological analysis for offshore wind farms but the mixture of relatively shallow water, stronger tidal currents and exposed wave climate make this a particularly interesting location to study,” said David Lambkin , ABPmer Project Manager.
“Our validated hindcast databases – SEASTATES – are the starting point for any metocean studies or parameters we provide and have been used to inform the preliminary report. As we move forward, this will be supplemented and validated with new data from a metocean survey and new high-resolution, site specific numerical modelling.”