GDG backs Irish gem

Simply Blue Energy (SBE) has appointed the Dublin-based engineering consultancy, Gavin and Doherty Geosolutions (GDG), to provide development support services for the Emerald floating wind project in the Celtic Sea.

GDG has been commissioned to provide both technical and consenting support during the foreshore licence process, providing a metocean assessment, conduct a landfall suitability assessment study, and to provide geophysical processing of INFOMAR data on the array area.

The 1 GW Emerald project will be delivered in three stages. The wind farm will feature turbines installed on Principle Power’s WindFloat foundations.

The first stage to be developed is a 100 MW demonstration array comprising seven to ten wind turbines with an individual capacity of between 10 MW and 15 MW installed between 35 and 60 kilometres off the coast of Cork.

The second stage will be the development of a pre-commercial floating wind farm with a capacity of approximately 288 MW connected to an offshore substation.

A commercial floating wind farm with a capacity of around 600 MW, connected to an offshore substation, will be developed in the third stage.

Earlier this month, SBE submitted an application to conduct investigations at the proposed site of the wind farm near the Kinsale gas field.

Site investigations are expected to start in the summer of 2021.

SBE is also developing the 96 MW Erebus floating wind project in the Celtic Sea, in partnership with the French energy major Total.