Plans to unlock valuable new clean energy off the coast of Wales and South West England are due to reach another milestone, with the first in a series of specialist survey vessels setting sail from Swansea.
The vessel, which has a crew of 30, will spend around 100 days at sea, using towed and hull-mounted sensors to gather geophysical data on the properties of the seabed and sub-seabed.
Operated by leading specialists Fugro, this is the first in a series of studies funded by The Crown Estate as it looks to accelerate plans for new floating offshore wind farms in the Celtic Sea, off the coast of Wales and South West England. The multi-million-pound programme includes plans for further surveys over the next two years which will see data collected on everything from wind and wave patterns to birds and marine mammals in the area.
The surveys have been designed to deliver strong, reliable datasets which will not only inform The Crown Estate’s own understanding of the seabed, but will be made freely available to successful bidders to support their own decision making and future progress through the planning process.
The surveys follow publication by The Crown Estate on 4th July of the proposed locations of the wind farms, with four project sites set to deliver up to 4GW of floating wind capacity. This would be enough to power around four million homes, making it one of the largest such initiatives in the world.
Source: The Crown Estate.