SMart Wind to install its first Met Mast this Summer

New ‘Twisted Jacket’ foundation set to significantly reduce CAPEX

The SMart Wind consortium, led by Mainstream Renewable Power and Siemens Project Ventures, today announced the signing of contracts to install the first met mast at its 4,000MW Hornsea zone. The mast, which is due to be installed in August, will use the new “twisted jacket” foundation, designed by Keystone Engineering. This novel foundation design, funded in partnership with the Carbon Trust and DONG Energy, aims to significantly reduce foundation CAPEX costs.

The project received grid connection for the first 1,000MW in September 2010 and over the past twelve months has been undergoing a full spectrum of environmental surveys, bird and mammal observations, geophysics, geotechnical investigation, marine ecology and deployment of metocean measuring devices to record wind and waves.

Andy Kinsella, Chairman of SMart Wind commented: “We are delighted to be installing our first met mast at Hornsea. This is another significant milestone on the path to delivering our first project into construction by 2014. Reducing the Cost of Energy is a key focus for SMart Wind and by using the new “twisted jacket” foundation we are clearly demonstrating our commitment to real cost reductions and innovation”.

The “twisted jacket” prototype is one of four finalists from the Carbon Trust’s Offshore Wind Accelerator (OWA) foundations competition to find the most innovative and cost effective turbine foundation designs for deeper water conditions. Hochtief Solutions AG is the lead EPCI contractor for the installation of the met mast. Under a separate agreement, University College Dublin with support from Enterprise Ireland and Fugro Structural Monitoring Limited will install structural instrumentation on the foundation to help further develop the ‘Twisted Jacket’ designs and give confidence in terms of performance.

The OWA is a collaborative RD&D programme between the Carbon Trust, DONG Energy, E.ON, Mainstream Renewable Power, RWE Innogy, Scottish Power Renewables, SSE Renewables, Statkraft and Statoil that aims to reduce the cost of offshore wind by 10%.