Port of Nigg celebrates delivery of final Moray East wind turbines
Register for free to read more of the latest local news. It's easy and will only take a moment.
The Port of Nigg, owned and operated by Highland-based Global Energy, has marked another significant achievement in its continuing development as one of Scotland's key renewable energy hubs.
This month saw the last four 9.5MW Vestas wind turbine generators (WTGs) leave the Easter Ross port aboard Fred Olsen installation vessel, Blue Tern, for installation at Scotland's largest offshore wind farm.
Moray Offshore Wind Farm (East) Limited (MOWEL), a joint venture company between EDP Renewables and ENGIE, is set to produce 950MW of green energy once its 100 turbines are fully operational. This is enough to meet 40 per cent of Scotland's electricity needs at current levels or power 950,000 homes across the UK.
The WTGs were installed on the jacket foundations which were handled by Global Energy, under a separate storage and marshalling contract with DEME Offshore, at their Port of Nigg facility the previous year.
Global’s wind logistics division, Global Port Services, also played a pivotal role in the pre-assembly works based at the Port of Nigg, covering many aspects of the project, including taking delivery and storing the main WTG components from Denmark, loading out of components to the construction jack up vessel (JUV), and providing all site based support services involving site preparation and enabling works to facilitate the pre assembly work, provision of heavy lift mobile and crawler cranes, hire of self-propelled modular trailers, heavy transport, plant hire and equipment, stevedoring and specialist labour supply, project management and liaison between all sub-contractors and stakeholders.
Roy MacGregor, chairman of Global Energy Group, commented: “We are delighted to have completed the load out of the final components for the Moray East Offshore Wind Farm. A great accolade for the Port of Nigg and the wider Global Energy Group, having also completed the storage and marshalling of the jacket structures for the project.
"I want to thank the entire team for the seamless execution during what was one of the most challenging times we have seen in our business with the global pandemic and the concerns this brought in delivering a project of this scale.”
Global has secured four major offshore wind projects over the past few years, including the jacket foundations for the Moray East Offshore Wind Farm and the storage and marshalling and pre-assembly activities for the Beatrice Offshore Wind Farm project, all made possible by the continuous investment and development in the Port of Nigg facility and the skills and expertise of the teams on site.
Moray East project director, Enrique Alvarez, said: “The offshore wind industry is a global enterprise, depending on a world-wide supply chain. Global Energy’s facility at the Port of Nigg served as Moray East’s hub of that supply chain, through which every component – jackets, every blade, tower and nacelle was unloaded, marshalled, readied for installation, then loaded onto a jack-up vessel for transport to its final destination on site in the Moray Firth.
“The co-ordination and choreography necessary to deliver a massive project like Moray East is no small undertaking, and I am delighted that we have safely reached this important milestone, despite the unprecedented conditions of the Covid pandemic.
"This success demonstrates that the Scottish supply chain and the sponsors involved in Moray East are ready to put Scotland at the centre of the offshore wind industry. I would like to thank all whose commitment has enabled us to reach this point in advance of schedule.”
