Orkney Offshore Wind Farm Takes Inspiration from Volcanic Past

Thistle Wind Partners (TWP), a consortium of DEME Concessions, Qair and Aspiravi, has announced that it is naming its Orkney offshore wind farm after the Point of Ayre headland in Deerness, which is notable for its volcanic rock formations.

The 1GW Ayre Offshore Wind Farm will be located 33km out from the headland in an area of seabed covering 201km² . TWP was granted rights to this site (known as the ‘NE2 leasing zone’) under last year’s ScotWind leasing round together with another project site (the 1GW Bowdun Offshore Wind Farm) off the coast of Aberdeenshire.

The Orkney site is characterised by water depths in excess of 70 metres, which makes it only suitable for ‘floating’ turbines (rather than those fixed to the seabed). A floating turbine sits on a platform at the water’s surface and is tethered to the seabed using cables and moorings.

TWP anticipates the start of construction to be in 2029 for the first phase of the project (a 98km² section) and 2031 for the southerly section (an area of 103²km). The wind farm will be fully commissioned and providing energy for an estimated 1.2 million households by 2033.

The baseline plan for the site is to build 50-60 turbines that are between 18MW and 25MW in capacity each. TWP is taking a technology-neutral stance to procuring its turbines, components and services, which means it is reviewing all available designs over the coming year.

This project is currently in its planning phase with bird and mammal surveys already underway using high-precision technologies from environmental consultancy APEM, which uses LiDAR to measure bird flight heights to within 10cm of accuracy. This surveying work will continue, alongside vessel surveys of the seabed and liaison with the fishing industry, over the next two years.

TWP invites Orkney residents to Kirkwall Pop-In Event

From next year, TWP will open up more detailed plans and visualisations of the site to the local communities in Orkney when it commences its public consultations. In the meantime, the team will be holding a Coffee Morning at Kiln Corner in Kirkwall from 10am – 1pm on Friday 31^st March.

“Everyone is welcome to call in and meet me and the team,” says TWP Project Director Ian Taylor. “We have been engaging with the local supply chain and the harbour authorities since early last year, but this will be our first opportunity to meet members of the public in Orkney and answer questions in person. We’re keen to get to know people and start to take views on our development as we go.”

“With the wind farm expected to have a ten-year development period and then be in the water for a further 25 years or more, we hope to be a beneficial presence in the region. It may well be that the very youngest on the islands, even in pre-school, could one day join us and the wider renewables industry as engineers, technology developers, marine scientists, and in many other roles.”

TWP is one of the funders of a new initiative from the University of Highlands & Islands to deliver a STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) outreach programme for primary schools across the region, including Orkney, providing materials and teacher training.