Forewind News

Forewind has scaled back by a third plans to build wind farms at Dogger Bank in Britain's North Sea, which could nevertheless become the world's largest wind project, it said on Friday. Forewind -- a consortium of energy companies RWE Innogy UK, SSE, Statkraft and Statoil -- gave no specific reason for the decision. It had secured licenses from Britain's Crown Estate to build six projects at the Dogger Bank offshore zone of 1.2 gigawatts (GW) of electricity each. The government has given consent for farms to be built at four of the sites but Forewind said on Friday it would not seek consent for the fifth and six. "These four Dogger Bank projects are a huge commitment and will require significant resources and attention from the owner companies to progress to the next stages…

Today’s planning approval for offshore wind energy at Dogger Bank takes the total of consented projects in the North Sea zone to 4.8 gigawatts (GW), almost equal to all the offshore wind capacity now in operation in the U.K. The consented development, Dogger Bank Teesside A&B is part of the Dogger Bank Zone, the largest of the Round 3 zones and the farthest from shore, but also one of the shallowest, with high wind speeds and seabed conditions ideally suited to offshore wind development.

The wider scientific community is set to benefit from offshore wind developer Forewind’s years of surveys and research, as the organization donates all the core samples collected on Dogger Bank to a national science facility Monday, June 8, 2015. The core samples, cylindrical soil sections extracted from the seabed, will be entrusted to the National Geological Repository (NGR), located at the British Geological Survey headquarters in Nottinghamshire, for use by anyone with an interest, from consultants and contractors to academics and students researching within a wide range of earth sciences.

James Fisher Marine Service (JFMS) announces the successful completion of the SMV 24 vessel’s maiden charter and immediate subsequent charter at Round Three wind farm sites. The vessel accomplished its first charter working with offshore wind energy developer Forewind to support the Dogger Bank development, and the second charter was to RES Offshore delivering services to Hornsea wind farm. Both projects delivered support to critical metrological masts for the Round Three wind farm sites, transferring crew and equipment to carry out installation and maintenance activities.

Forewind, in agreement with The Crown Estate has revised the current development potential for the total capacity of the wind energy projects in the Dogger Bank Zone from 9 gigawatts (GW) to 7.2 GW. At the same time, the consortium behind London Array has announced it will not proceed with the development of Phase 2 of the offshore wind farm. The revision has been made following more than four years of offshore and onshore surveys and assessments, which have concluded that the…

The Planning Inspectorate accepted Forewind’s development consent order application for the first stage of offshore wind energy development on the Dogger Bank Zone. The application for Dogger Bank Creyke Beck, comprising two offshore wind farms with a total installed capacity of up to 2.4 gigawatts (GW), was submitted in August after more than three years of surveys and research work, reporting and stakeholder engagement activity. The Planning Inspectorate will now begin a pre-examination phase that will be followed by a formal examination process, together these should take around 10 months.

Offshore wind developer Forewind’s second of two planned meteorological masts was erected at Dogger Bank during the weekend using the innovative suction installed Bucket Foundation and a “human free” technique for the steel tower placement. The latest mast to be installed – Dogger Bank Met Mast West - will provide essential wind, wave and other weather information, as well as marine traffic data for the Dogger Bank offshore wind energy development. It is located approximately 150 kilometres from the U.K. coast. Installed by Fred.

RES Offshore has signed an Operations and Maintenance (O&M) services contract with Forewind for two met masts in the Dogger Bank Round 3 zone. These met masts are the furthest offshore of any in the UK and RES will be delivering scheduled and unscheduled maintenance for the structures and instrumentation systems including all work on the masts together with project management and procurement of vessels and subcontractors. The Dogger Bank Zone is in the North Sea, located between 125 and 290 kilometres off the east coast of Yorkshire.

The latest seabed survey of the Dogger Bank offshore wind zone takes the cost of the Forewind consortium's spend on offshore surveys to almost £45 million. Since being awarded the rights to develop Dogger Bank in January 2010, Forewind has undertaken a huge range of geotechnical, geophysical and fish ecology surveys to understand and characterise the seabed and marine conditions of the zone as part of its environmental impact assessment work. The majority of the contracts have gone to UK companies including Hull-based Precision Marine Survey Limited…

Offshore wind consortium, Forewind’s second and final stage of consultation for its first offshore wind energy development, Dogger Bank Creyke Beck begins Friday, April 19. The consultation, which starts with the publication of documents, plans and maps about the proposed development, will run until Tuesday, June 11 and will include a series of public events to be held in venues along the proposed cable route, from the coastal village of Ulrome to Cottingham, in the East Riding of Yorkshire.

The Dogger Bank offshore wind zone is proving to be a site for innovation as a new and safer installation technique has been used to lift Forewind’s initial meteorological mast tower on top of the innovative suction-installed bucket foundation. The use of the Bucket Foundation was also a UK industry first when placed on site in February. Fred. Olsen United implemented the concept of moving the riggers, who previously had to be near the lattice towers during installation, and instead introducing guide cones, therefore eliminating the risk of a swinging or falling load causing an accident.

Offshore Marine Management (OMM) completes a feasibility study for Forewind’s planned North Sea wind energy development. The study was undertaken to assess route feasibility options along one of the development’s 160km long export cable corridors. The scope of work required OMM to analyse survey data, establish a Burial Protection Index (BPI) and carry out a burial assessment to recommend cable burial depths along the route. This was used to advise on the potential need for corridor widening and cable protection measures, including advising on appropriate techniques for cable burial and protection along the route. OMM used its in-house Esri GIS facilities to assess the data provided for geology…

Statoil and Statkraft have acquired the Dudgeon Offshore Wind Farm project through the acquisition of all shares in Dudgeon Offshore Wind Limited (DOW), a subsidiary of the UK energy company Warwick Energy Limited. Following a successful partnership in developing the Sheringham Shoal Offshore Wind Farm off the coast of North Norfolk, Statoil and Statkraft will now work together to develop the Dudgeon Offshore Wind Farm. The project could deliver many hundreds of jobs during the construction phase and, once in operation, will provide renewable energy to the UK market. Dudgeon has recently received an offshore consent that allows for up to 560 MW of installed generation capacity.

Today His Royal Highness, Crown Prince Haakon of Norway will officially open the Sheringham Shoal Offshore Wind Farm built off the coast of Norfolk by owners Statoil and Statkraft. The Crown Prince will open the wind farm at an official ceremony at historic Holkham Hall in North Norfolk with support from UK Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, Edward Davey; Norwegian Minister of Petroleum and Energy, Ola Borten Moe; Minister of Trade and Industry, Trond Giske; and the owners’ presidents and CEOs, Helge Lund from Statoil and Christian Rynning-Tønnesen from Statkraft. Sheringham Shoal is owned equally by Statoil and Statkraft through the joint-venture company Scira Offshore Energy Limited.

A new wind farm, to be developed by StatoilHydro and Statkraft, which will consist of 88 turbines, is planned to start production in 2011. When fully operational, its annual electricity production is expected to be around 1.1TWh, enough energy to power around 220,000 UK homes. Total investments are estimated at approximately $1.5b. Until now, the 315 MW Sheringham Shoal project has been owned 100% by StatoilHydro. Through an agreement, Statkraft will acquire 50% of the shares in the project, thus becoming an equal partner with StatoilHydro.