Illustration; BW Ideol

The 1 GW Buchan floating offshore wind project is being developed by the Floating Energy Allyance, a consortium comprising BW Ideol, Elicio, and BayWa r.e., which secured the rights for the project site at the beginning of last year through the ScotWind leasing round.

The three contracts were awarded to Copper Consultancy, who will support onshore and offshore stakeholder engagement and consultation, and to Natural Power, who will lead the onshore stakeholder engagement and Environmental Impact Assessment in parallel with their ongoing offshore work.

In addition, a contract was awarded to Blackhall & Powis, who will be responsible for property support, including securing land rights for the substation and onshore cabling, after having already delivered fishery liaison and early land assembly support.

According to its developers, this marks an important step forward within the development process of the project and brings the total value of contracts awarded to date to over GBP 20 million.

“The Buchan Offshore Wind project team continues to engage with National Grid’s Holistic Network Design process and are committed to rapidly progressing both onshore and offshore elements of the project“, said Alasdair MacLeod, Project Director at Buchan Offshore Wind.

The Buchan floating offshore wind farm is planned to have a capacity of approximately 1 GW, whose wind turbines will be installed on BW Ideol’s Damping Pool floating foundations.

Geotechnical and geophysical site investigation is being carried out some 75 kilometres off the Aberdeenshire coast, by Ocean Infinity.