Name and Location
European Offshore Wind Deployment Centre (EOWDC), Aberdeen, Scotland.

Client
Aberdeen Offshore Wind Farm, a joint venture between Vattenfall and Aberdeen Renewable Energy Group and development consortium partner Technip.

Project Description
The European Offshore Wind Deployment Centre is a groundbreaking new facility being developed by Aberdeen Offshore Wind Farm. The EOWDC will allow offshore wind-farm developers and associated supply chain companies to test new designs, prove existing products and receive independent validation and accreditation before commercial deployment.

This will contribute to reducing development risks and lowering capital costs, and provide an opportunity to test reliability and capacity in a real-time, offshore environment. The project will provide electricity to the national grid and will disseminate lessons learned to the European Union industry at large.

The key offshore components of the EOWDC include:
• 11 offshore wind turbines and associated foundations;
• subsea cables between the wind turbines;
• an export cable for connection to the electricity transmission network;
• scour protection around foundations and on interarray and export subsea cables as required; and
• a potential Ocean Laboratory, which will likely comprise met mast and other meteorological and environmental monitoring equipment.

The 11-turbine scheme located off the Aberdeen coast, will have an installed capacity of up to 100 MW and, over 12 months, would be capable of yielding, on average, enough clean, green electricity to power the equivalent of more than 68 000 UK households.

The key onshore components of the project are likely to include:
• onshore deployment facilities;
• the landfall site, with associated jointing between the offshore export cable and onshore cable to the onshore substation; and
• the onshore substation.

Value
The project will cost more than £230-million to implement.

Duration
The aim is to start offshore construction in 2015.

Latest Developments
The Scottish government has approved the project.

The consent application was submitted in August 2011 with an addendum submitted in July 2012. Scottish Ministers granted approval for the project on March 26.

Work to address conditions associated with the consent will begin shortly in liaison with Marine Scotland and statutory advisors. In the interim period, project partners will continue to work closely with the local community and build upon the wide support that the project has received throughout the initial development phase.

Key Contracts and Suppliers
None stated.

On Budget and on Time?
Not stated.

Contact Details for Project Information
EOWDC junior project manager, Lee Purves, tel +44 0131 526 3134.