Ramboll and GDG concept design for Arklow Bank foundations

SSE Renewables has commissioned the combined design team of Ramboll and Gavin & Doherty Geosolutions (GDG) to deliver the concept design for the wind turbine substructures for Phase 2 of the Arklow Bank wind farm offshore Ireland.

Arklow Bank is a 520 MW offshore development located circa 12 kilometres off the Wicklow Coast in the Irish Sea.

It is the most advanced Irish offshore wind project, aiming to be commissioned by 2025 under Ireland’s Foreshore Act and be a key contributor to meeting the Irish government’s climate action plan target of 1GW of offshore wind by 2025 and 5 GW by 2030.

The concept engineering being undertaken by Ramboll and GDG is facilitating technical assessment of the preferred foundation solutions and will allow sizing of the foundations to enable accurate cost estimates to be developed for the upcoming RESS auction in 2021.

Both Ramboll and GDG have significant familiarity with the Arklow Bank project, with Ramboll having delivered the original consent for the project and GDG having already worked on the development activities on Phase 2 for several years with tasks including Desktop Studies, Survey Management, and Ground Model development.

SSE and GE Energy co-developed the 7-turbine 25 MW Arklow Bank Phase 1 in 2004 as a demonstrator project to prove the opportunity that offshore wind energy could represent for Ireland. The Arklow Bank Phase 1 is Ireland’s first and only operating offshore wind farm.