Environmental and marine services company Briggs Marine will provide crew transfer vessel (CTV) services for the Neart na Gaoithe (NnG) offshore wind farm.
As the offshore wind plant moves from the construction phase into the operations and maintenance (O&M) phase, the three-year contract will see Briggs Marine provide its CTV vessel to transport technicians and equipment from NnG’s operations and maintenance base in Eyemouth to Neart na Gaoithe in the Firth of Forth.
Briggs Marine’s Forth Engineer CTV vessel will be able to transport 12 technicians at any one time to the wind farm as well as being able to carry cargo, fuel, equipment and specialised tools.
The Neart na Gaoithe wind development recently generated first power. Briggs Marine provided CTV services over the last three years during construction and the company’s director of port and marine services, Iain Ross, said it was “delighted” to have won the O&M tender.
He added: “Briggs Marine has demonstrated its ability to not only provide the services demanded by our clients, but to do it with safety at the core of everything we do, providing Neart na Gaoithe with tangible, real world solutions in challenging environments.”
Briggs is headquartered in Burntisland, and the CTV vessel will be able to use the firm’s Forth Estuary facility there.
John Penman, technical director at Neart na Gaoithe wind farm, commented: “We have worked with Briggs for a number of years now and are very pleased that this partnership will continue as the project transitions from its construction phase to operation.”
According to EDF, which co-owns the development alongside utility ESB, the project is expected to be completed and fully commissioned by summer 2025. Once completed, the wind farm will be made up of 54 wind turbines with a combined capacity of 450MW.
The UK is targeting an installed offshore wind capacity of 50GW by 2030. Scotland has been identified specifically as a country within the UK which has the potential for a significantly high wind energy generation capacity.
In February 2024, the Crown Estate released research indicating that the floating offshore wind opportunity in the Celtic Sea could be worth up to £1.4 billion for the UK economy. According to The Crown Estate, the first three floating offshore wind farms in the Celtic Sea will be some of the largest in the world and generate up to 4.5GW of Electricity.
Up to 5GW of the targeted offshore wind capacity could come from floating offshore wind developments. The Celtic Sea is set to account for 4.5GW of the target’s floating offshore wind production, making it a critical component in achieving the government’s energy production goals.
Trade association RenewableUK ranks the UK second globally for installed offshore wind capacity: 245MW of floating offshore wind is currently fully operational across 15 projects in seven countries. Norway leads the pack with 94MW of capacity across three projects, shortly followed by the UK with 78MW of capacity over two projects.
