Kincardine Offshore Wind Farm
ScotWind is a programme managed by Crown Estate Scotland which will Lease areas of the Seabed around Scotland for Wind Farm Developments. Developers apply to the Scheme and, if successful, will be Granted the Rights to build Wind Farms in Scottish Waters. The Kincardine Project was started back in 2014 by Allan MacAskill & Lord Nicol Stephen, now both Directors of Flotation Energy plc. In 2016 Cobra Group became the main investor in Kincardine Offshore Windfarm Ltd (KOWL). Engineering Design, Supply, Construction & Commissioning of a Floating Offshore Wind Farm with a nominal capacity of 50-MW. The Wind Farm is located 15-km off the Coast of Kincardine, Scotland and is comprised of a 2MW Vestas Turbine in addition to 5 – 9.5 MW Vestas Turbines.
The 50MW Offshore Floating Wind Farm is 9-miles East of Stonehaven, Aberdeenshire, in water depths ranging from 60 metres to 80 metres, Kincardine is the largest operating Floating Wind Farm. Grupo Cobra (part of the ACS Group), of Madrid was in overall control of the £350M Kincardine Wind Farm development. It began with the Trial Installation of a 2.0MW Turbine by Bourbon Subsea Services of Marseille, France in October 2018. The 3,000-Tonne, triangular “WindFloat” semi-submersible Floating Platforms were designed by Principle Power Inc of California and Constructed by Windar Renovables SL at Aviles & Navantia-SEPI at their Shipyard at Fene-Ferrol, both in Spain. Boskalis NV of Papendrecht, Netherlands Shipped the Foundations to Rotterdam, where 5 – 590ft. tall, 9.5MW Turbines, manufactured by MHI Vestas A/S of Aarhus, Denmark, were mounted on them.
Boskalis then towed the completed Turbines across the North Sea to the Kincardine Coast, and installed them from December 2020 till July 2021, at water depths ranging from 60 to 80M. A Cable connection goes to Altens (East of the Railway) and then to the SSE Redmoss Substation at Langdykes Road, Cove, Aberdeen. The Wind Farm is scheduled to generate enough Power for 55,000 households for the next 25-yrs
With a 164M-dia Rotor, each V164-9.5MW Turbine will have a swept area of 21,124M². The Nacelle dimensions of the Turbine are 9.3M x 20.7M x 8.8M, while the Blade tip height of each 9.5MW Turbine will be 190M.
”With 80% of the World’s Offshore Wind resources in deep water areas, Floating technologies like the WindFloat® open several new Geographies to harness the boundless supply of clean energy contained therein. The UK has led the way in realising the potential of Floating Wind and is now recognised globally as a key market for Floating Wind Developments. Kincardine demonstrates the readiness of Floating Wind to support the Government’s net zero ambitions ahead of the forthcoming Lease awards in ScotWind, floating wind Leasing rounds managed by Crown Estate Scotland.”
Contractors Involved
Cobra Wind, a subsidiary of ACS Group, is responsible for the Engineering, Design, Supply, Construction & Commissioning of the Kincardine Floating Wind Farm. Cobra awarded the Turbine Supply Contract for the project to MHI Vestas in 2018, while Bourbon Subsea Services was contracted for Turbine Installation.
Principle Power provided WindFloat™ semi-submersible Foundation for the 2MW Turbine of the Wind Farm, while a joint venture between Navantia & Windar was contracted to supply the remaining 5-Floating Turbine Foundations for the project in February 2019. The Mooring system for the Floating Wind Turbine Foundations is provided by Vryhof, which appointed Farinia Group for supplying the Clump Weights.
Prysmian Group was contracted by Cobra Wind to provide the inter-array as well as Export Cables for the project in January 2018.
SENER was selected by Cobra in January 2019 to provide Supervisory Services as well as Technical feasibility analysis during the Construction, Installation & Commissioning of the wind project.
Atkins was engaged for the detailed Engineering Design of the project in 2013, while Partrac was contracted for the Meteorological & Oceanographic (metocean) Survey at the Project Site in May 2017.
Doric Columns 