On September 4th a delegation from Fred. Olsen, the Forewind Consortia (made up of representatives from RWE Innogy, SSE Renewables, Statkraft and Statoil) and Carbon Trust visited the Harland and Wolff facility in Belfast.
The delegation saw the fabrication of the innovative suction installed bucket foundation technology that will be used on two meteorological masts to be installed at the Dogger Bank Offshore Wind Zone later this year.
The technology was identified as part of the Carbon Trust's collaborative Offshore Wind Accelerator programme which aims to reduce the cost of offshore wind by 10% by 2015. Reducing the costs of wind turbine foundations will be key to achieving this goal. Demonstrating the technology to support the metrological masts is important step in commercialising the Universal Foundation for use with turbines.