April 29, 2021
The seabed beneath the future energy island in the North Sea has to be thoroughly surveyed and mapped before work on building the island and the large offshore wind farms around it can commence. Energinet has just awarded survey assignments to two experienced marine survey companies who are expected to set sail in the North Sea in May.
The two companies are Fugro and MMT. Their ships are loaded with seismic equipment to meticulously map the seabed under the more than 1,000km
2 area in the North Sea where the artificial energy island and 3GW of wind farms are to be built.
The geophysical surveys will start in May and cover over 1000km square, Energinet said.
The surveys, together with later drilling samples, will result in a detailed, digital mapping of the seabed and the geological layers up to 100 metres below ground, it added.
Fugro said it will perform geophysical and unexploded ordnance magnetometry surveys from May to November 2021, resuming in February and March 2022.
Phase one will deliver the geophysical surveys, including seabed sampling and soil data, while the second phase will be the UXO magnetometry survey, using Fugro’s dedicated Geowing solution.
Fugro’s offshore wind consultancy teams will use the acquired data to provide a derisked site interpretation.
Energinet has awarded Fugro a marine site characterisation contract for the Danish Energy Island project in the North Sea. The contract is part of Ene.
Credit: Fugro
Dutch offshore survey firm Fugro and Sweden s MMT have won contracts with the Danish grid operator Energinet, to carry out seabed surveys for the Danish Energy Island project in the North Sea.
The contracts follow an announcement by the Danish authorities in February that the country would build the first of its kind wind energy hub in the North Sea that promises to produce yet unseen amounts of green electricity, in what has been described as the largest construction project in Danish history.
The energy hub - an artificial island - will serve as an offshore power plant gathering and distributing green electricity from hundreds of wind turbines surrounding the island directly to consumers in countries surrounding the North Sea.