Vessel on Norfolk nearshore for seabed tests to shape wind farm final design

Monday, September 21 2020

A jack-up vessel is working close to shore off a Norfolk beach collecting seabed data to shape the design of one of the world’s largest wind farms.

The 500-tonne Haven Seariser 2 is on the nearshore off Happisburgh while its geotechnical engineering team take samples for Swedish energy group Vattenfall’s Norfolk Vanguard and Norfolk Boreas developments.

The rig is a 29-metre long barge fitted with long support legs jacked down onto the seafloor. It is gathering borehole samples, down to a maximum of 30 metres.

The process will build an understanding of seabed sediment layering to decide the installation methodology for the wind farms’ main transmission cables at their landfall at Happisburgh.

Several larger vessels are working further offshore carrying out similar sampling in a four-month campaign.