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The Dutch government has appointed Fugro to carry out site characterisation work ahead of development of the 700MW-capacity Hollandse Kust (noord) Wind Farm zone located 10 nautical miles off the Netherlands.
The geotechnical scope of the contract comprises seabed investigations and borehole drilling at two locations. Other aspects include laboratory testing and production of an integrated geological/geotechnical soil model that will be used by future developers of the wind farm to prepare their bids.
In the third quarter of 2017, an earlier contract with the Netherlands Enterprise Agency saw Fugro complete a geophysical survey of the area to map the position of existing cables and pipelines, as well as the possible presence of other obstacles.
Client for the work is the Netherlands Enterprise Agency (RVO.nl), which is part of the Ministry of Economic Affairs & Climate Policy. Frank van Erp, project manager at RVO.nl said: “Our aim is to use the latest techniques to ensure the package of site studies we deliver for developers preparing bids is the best it can be, so they can fully optimise wind farm designs. We are confident Fugro's state-of-the-art techniques will play a key role in this.”
Fieldwork will take place from Fugro vessels including its latest geotechnical drilling vessel, Fugro Synergy. The work will start this month and carry on until June.
“Our geotechnical innovations will ensure that we deliver data of the highest quality to RVO.nl and obtain it in a safe manner,” said Sven Plasman, Fugro’s project director. “From Fugro Synergy we’ll operate the Fugro Seadevil, an offshore geotechnical tool that optimises vertical control during drilling and enables our team to acquire high quality samples. The seabed cone penetration testing (CPT) will be carried out using our Seacalf MkIV system; its coiled rod requires no manual handling, ensuring safer operations, while the continuous drive system yields high quality data. Both of these innovative systems are fundamental to reducing operational costs and are integral elements of Fugro’s specialised support for the offshore wind industry.”
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