Blue Gem Wind, the joint venture between TotalEnergies and Simply Blue Energy, has begun geotechnical investigations on the Angle Peninsula in Wales, to examine the onshore cable route for its planned Erebus floating wind farm.
The work, which began in late May, is being led by Tetra Tech, and involves excavating trial pits and borehole drilling to create small diameter holes to obtain samples of soil and rock. The geotechnical investigations are scheduled to last for up to 6 weeks.
Ben Huskinson, Consenting Manager at Blue Gem Wind said: “These works involve examining soils and collecting samples of rock along the proposed onshore cable route for the Erebus floating wind farm. We will be carrying out the investigations from Pembroke Power Station across to West Angle Bay. Each location has been carefully selected to provide good representative samples, and avoid sensitive ecological and archaeological features.”
Katy Woodhouse, Geo-Environmental Engineer, Tetra Tech, said: "We are delighted that our Cardiff-based geo-environmental team has been chosen to work with Blue Gem Wind on this exciting low carbon project. ”
Floating wind has wide potential, opening access to sites further offshore, which have less impact on the landscape and coastal activity, and benefit from higher wind resources.
In a recent report, as cited Monday by Blue Gem Wind, the ƶijϻ Renewable Energy Catapult has advised that there could be as much as 50GW of electricity capacity available in the Celtic Sea and estimated that the first GW of floating wind could potentially deliver over 3,000 jobs and £682m in supply chain opportunities for Wales and Cornwall by 2030.
The Erebus floating wind farm in the Celtic Sea, offshore Wales, will have a capacity of 96 megawatts and will be installed in an area with a water depth of 70 meters.