Nearshore geotechnical surveys along the Neart na Gaoithe export cable corridor route are due to start off the Fife coast in Scotland later this month.
The survey work is being carried out by Fugro using a ‘walking’ jack-up barge, Wavewalker 1. The survey is planned to start no earlier than 25 November and last approximately three weeks, dependent on weather, a notice to mariners said.
The survey will comprise approximately intertidal and marine borehole locations at intervals from low water on Thorntonloch beach out to approximately two kilometres along the proposed Neart na Gaoithe export cable corridor route. At each of these locations a seabed sample will be collected.
The 450MW Neart na Gaoithe offshore wind farm is fully consented and was awarded a Contract for Difference (CfD) by the Low Carbon Contracts Company in February 2015.
EDF bought the 450MW project from Mainstream Renewable Power in May 2018. The total investment needed to deliver the project located some 15 kilometres off the Fife coast is around GBP 1.8 billion.
The wind farm will comprise up to 54 wind turbines scheduled for commissioning by 2023.