World’s deepest offshore wind turbine foundation installed in Scottish waters

Foundation installation at the Seagreen Wind Farm site, 27 kilometres off the coast of the county of Angus in Scotland Credit: SSE Renewables

The world’s deepest wind turbine foundation has been installed at what will be Scotland’s largest offshore windfarm – Seagreen – off the coast of Angus.

On Friday, the foundation (or ‘jacket’ as is the industry term) was transported to the project site on a barge operated by main contractor Seaway 7 where it was met by the Saipem 7000 – the semisubmersible crane vessel which is used to lift each of the 2,000-tonne turbine foundations into place.

The installation of the jacket means Seagreen has now topped its own record from October 2022, when a previous foundation was installed at a depth of 57.4 metres (approximately 188 feet). The deepest foundation has been installed at a depth of 58.6 metres.

The significant milestone also marks the installation of the 112th jacket at the 114-wind turbine wind farm which is a £3bn joint venture between SSE Renewables and TotalEnergies. The final wind turbine foundation is expected to be installed later this week