November 2, 2020

Ramboll and GDG team support emerging Irish offshore wind market

SSE Renewables commissioned the combined design team of Ramboll and GDG to deliver the concept design for the wind turbine substructures for Phase 2 of the Arklow Bank Wind Park (ABWP) Project. Ramboll’s depth and breadth of resources and unmatched global track record in offshore wind combined with GDG’s expert knowledge in the areas of geotechnical engineering and foundation design make a winning team. Furthermore, as an Irish owned consultancy, GDG brings local knowledge and detailed understanding of the ground conditions in the Irish Sea.

The ABWP project is a 520MW offshore development located approximately 12km off the Wicklow Coast in the Irish Sea. The ABWP project is the most advanced Irish offshore wind project, and is aiming to deliver by 2025 under the Foreshore Act, and as such will be a key contributor to meeting the Irish Government’s climate action plan target of 1GW of Offshore Wind by 2025 and the Programme for Government’s commitment to 5GW by 2030.

The concept engineering being undertaken by Ramboll and GDG is facilitating technical assessment of the preferred foundation solutions and will allow sizing of the foundations to enable accurate cost estimates to be developed for the upcoming RESS auction in 2021. Both Ramboll and GDG have significant familiarity with the ABWP project, with Ramboll having delivered the original consent for the project and GDG having already worked on the development activities on Phase 2 for several years with tasks including Desktop Studies, Survey Management and Ground Model development. Through the work completed to date, Ramboll and GDG have developed a keen appreciation for the specific technical constraints and going forward aim to design the substructures while simultaneously reducing the overall project risk to get to a lean design with price certainty.

GDG also allow the benefits of the PISA 3D FEM methodologies to be brought forward at concept stage through a close integrated design process with the Ramboll team to ensure that cost accuracy can be achieved. By working closely together, the team can accelerate the overall design programme by providing sufficient information at concept stage to make key decisions and de-risk the project prior to the detailed engineering stage. Both companies are highly experienced in delivering cost-effective designs by making use of state-of-the-art software. Equally important to cost-effective design is the underlying technology and methods that will enable achieving this; both Ramboll and GDG are leaders in the market and have a proven track record of obtaining certification of monopile designs using design methods that help reduce project costs.