Remotely Initiated Geotechnical Surveys for Wind Farm

Pioneering exploratory geotechnical surveys for the construction of offshore wind farm Ossian have recently been completed, involving Ocean Infinity’s new Infinity CPT 250. 

The Ossian wind farm is a joint venture between SSE Renewables, Marubeni, and Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners (CIP) that will cover 858 square km of seabed off the east coast of Scotland.

It will have the potential to produce up to 3.6 gigawatts (GW) of energy, enough to power up to six million homes. Once completed, Ossian will be one of the largest floating offshore wind farms in the world.

Since spring 2023, Ocean Infinity has supported with detailed geotechnical surveys to assess the engineering properties of the seabed across the expansive site. Its scope included 90 seabed cone penetration tests (CPT), 45 seabed seismic cone penetration tests, and 20 vibrocores.

Deep push seabed CPTs were carried out remotely in a significant industry first operation of its kind. ‘Over-the-horizon’ commands were sent via a remote-control system, which directed the successful operations of the Infinity CPT 250. 

This milestone represents a huge step towards remote geotechnical operations, and the company’s goal of evolving offshore operations towards a safer and greener maritime future, which underpins Ocean Infinity’s wider mission.

The expansion into geotechnical work and this project to get Infinity CPT 250 commissioned and commercialised began more than a year ago. In a short period of time, the in-house team of geotechnical engineers worked alongside manufacturers to bring the company’s vision, which at that point only existed on paper, to reality.

Following a period of commissioning and successful data quality testing, Ocean Infinity set to work for the Ossian group on what became the maiden project for the Infinity CPT 250. The project began well and the data quality was good.

As with anything that drives the forefront of transformation, and the general nature of a company like Ocean Infinity, this project was not without its challenges.

The operation of this equipment, particularly using ‘over-the-horizon’ commands on some of the pushes, was a first for all involved. Working with the Ossian group created the opportunity for the company to test the capability of its technology, which will ultimately unlock more efficient operations supporting offshore wind farm infrastructure and design.  

There were a huge number of lessons learnt and, such is the nature of the industry, there will be more to come. Consistent evaluation and improvements are a huge part of working towards the overarching mission to create and use innovative technology.

Into next year, the Ocean Infinity will begin integrating its geotechnical equipment onto its newly commissioned ‘Armada’ robotic lean-crewed ships to bring to the fore even more benefits of tech enabled operations.