MMT to carry out seabed surveys at Danish Energy Island site

Denmark’s Energinet has selected MMT to carry out the initial surveys of the seabed where the Energy Island will be built in the North Sea.

MMT will conduct pre-construction geophysical and seismic surveys in the 526 km2 area from May 2021 to September 2022.

The work will be carried out in four phases, with Phase 1 set to deliver the geophysical survey including 2D surveys down to 100m below the seabed.

Phase 2 will see the deployment of ROVs to conduct UXO magnetometer surveys. Phase 3 includes a 3D Ultra High-Resolution Seismic (UHRS) survey of the Energy Island locations, followed by the final phase, a survey and inspection to assist the Danish Navy with the removal of confirmed UXO.

The data will be used to produce a digital map of the seabed and underlying geological layers to allow construction of the artificial island and around 200 offshore wind turbines in both a technically feasible and environmentally conscious manner.

Energinet also recently awarded Fugro with a marine site characterization contract for the Energy Island, under which the company will perform geophysical and UXO magnetometry surveys, used to prepare an integrated geological and geotechnical soil model on which wind farm developers will base future tenders.

The North Sea Energy Island will be an artificially constructed island 80 km from the shore of the peninsula Jutland. Around 200 wind turbines with a combined capacity of 3 GW are expected to be installed in the first phase of the project by 2030.

When fully developed, the North Sea energy island hub will reach a capacity of 10 GW.