Key milestone for Salamander floating wind project as offshore survey successfully completed for 2022

Survey contractor Ocean Infinity conducted the offshore survey using the Northern Franklin vessel. The geophysical survey and environmental survey activities commenced on August 7 and were completed on September 21.

Salamander, a joint venture between Simply Blue Group, Ørsted and Subsea7, will help to ensure the UK government’s target of delivering 5GW of operational floating offshore wind by 2030.

The pioneering project, located 35km off Peterhead, is designed to provide the Scottish supply chain with an early capacity development opportunity, enabling it to play a much greater role in subsequent large-scale floating offshore wind buildout. The project will deploy innovative and cutting-edge floating offshore wind technologies, to support the cost reduction and learning journey needed for the commercial deployment of floating offshore wind.

The scope covered reconnaissance of the offshore array area and export cable route corridor using both geophysical and benthic habitat survey techniques. The objective was to establish a baseline ground model which will be developed as the project matures.

Huw Bell, Salamander Project Director said: “This is a key landmark for the project as the survey results will be used to support engineering studies including mooring design and cable burial assessments. Benthic survey data will be analysed onshore with results supporting the Environmental Impact Assessment and the overall consenting process.

“The working relationship and quality of work with Ocean Infinity has been excellent throughout. In what’s turned out to be quite a dynamic scope, the operations have been completed safely with no harm to personnel or the environment. This really has been a textbook performance by all involved.”

Salamander is intended to be progressed through the innovation track of Crown Estate Scotland’s Innovation and Targeted Oil and Gas (INTOG) leasing round. The INTOG round will grant seabed leases through a bidding process, which will be split into two pots – one for smaller scale innovation projects of less than 100 MW and one for larger projects linked to oil and gas infrastructure.