EDF Energy awards £1.4M offshore wind farm ground investigation contract

Drilling will be down to 50m below the sea bed

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EDF Energy has contracted geotechnical firm Soil Mechanics to carry out £1.4M worth of ground investigations for a 90MW offshore wind farm in the North Sea.

Work is expected to take 10 weeks and will encompass a variety of drilling techniques involving combined cable tool and rotary core boreholes down to a maximum of 50m.

This will be followed by insitu high pressure dilatometer monitoring of load-displacements to determine strength and stiffness properties of the soils and rocks. Down-hole geophysical logging will also be undertaken using acoustic televiewers to scan the borehole walls and detect fractures for evaluation.

In addition, site workers will carry out cone penetration tests at depth of up to 20m to interpret ground conditions and measure the resistance and strength of the seabed.

Soil mechnics regional estimator John Stephenson said the contract would be carried out using a jack up platform with 34m long legs, 1.5km out to sea.

Once operational the 30 turbines will be able to generate electricity for about 60,000 homes.