Wood to deliver design services for 100MW Salamander floating wind project in Scotland

Wood has been awarded the Principal Designer and Pre-FEED scope for Salamander, the 100MW floating wind farm development located 35km off Peterhead in the East Coast of Scotland.

The Salamander project, a joint venture between Simply Blue Group, Ørsted and Subsea 7, will be a major contributor to ensuring the UK government’s target of delivering 5GW of operational floating offshore wind by 2030 is both achievable and to the maximum benefit of public and private stakeholders.

The pioneering project is designed to provide the Scottish supply chain with an early capacity development opportunity, enabling it to play a much greater role in subsequent large-scale floating offshore wind buildout. The project will deploy innovative and cutting-edge floating offshore wind technologies to support the cost reduction and learning journey needed for the commercial deployment of floating offshore wind.

Azad Hessamodini, Executive President of Wood Consulting, said “Given Scotland’s enviable renewable energy resources, the country has a tremendous opportunity to cement its position as a global leader in the fast-growing floating offshore wind market.

“Developments like the Salamander project will play a vital role in providing low-carbon energy for the region and in helping the UK to meet its ambitious decarbonisation targets. We are proud to be guiding the development of this innovative project and which could set the standard for future floating wind developments across the globe.”

Wood will undertake and manage a system level pre-FEED (front-end engineering design) to enable the planning, costing and risk-assessment of a FEED design process. As part of the scope, Wood will manage the interfaces with the foundation designer and provide design services for the subsea and onshore cables as well as grid and onshore electrical connection. The scope also includes wind turbine generator OEM engagement, collation of site data, ports, transport and installation analysis, and O&M strategy and certification.

Salamander is intended to be progressed through the innovation track of Crown Estate Scotland’s forthcoming Innovation and Targeted Oil and Gas (INTOG) leasing round. Opening in August 2022, the INTOG round will grant seabed leases through an auction process, which will be split into two pots – one for smaller scale innovation projects of less than 100 MW and one for larger projects linked to oil and gas infrastructure.

Huw Bell, Salamander Project Director said: “Salamander will provide a vital stepping-stone to delivering Scotland’s future commercial scale offshore wind buildout. This project can demonstrate a pathway to reducing cost, reducing risk, and developing Scotland as a destination for innovation, in time for the upcoming wave of larger scale developments from 2030 onwards.

“There’s no other project that offers such valuable and broad learnings for Scottish industry and stakeholders over the next few years. We look forward to working with the team at Wood to progress Salamander to the next stage of development.”

This award builds on the relationship Wood already have with Simply Blue Group, having previously been awarded a pre-FEED contract for a proposed floating offshore wind farm located off the west coast of Ireland.