The international renewable energy consultancy will provide offshore wind expertise across a range of areas in order to deliver technical assurance for stakeholders in the project. The offshore wind team at GL Garrad Hassan boasts an unrivalled breadth of technical expertise and for SMart Wind its experts will provide technical due diligence in relation to the assessment of structures, and analysis of the risk management and layout design processes.
"After a strong competition GL Garrad Hassan emerged as our preferred consultant for the role of Independent Engineer for the first two projects in the Hornsea zone. Its offshore team has significant expertise in helping to deliver key offshore wind projects across Northern Europe and its technical understanding provides a firm basis on which to make confident decisions. We began our environmental surveys in early spring and are making steady progress towards bringing the first 500MW project to construction by 2014," said SMart Wind’s General Manager, Chris Hill.
Last month, the SMart Wind consortium announced it had secured grid connection for the first two 500-MW projects, with first connection earmarked for 2014. The Hornsea project is scheduled to deliver 4,000 MW of offshore wind power capacity by 2020, making it an important step in the UK's move away from conventional power generation to a secure low carbon energy future. It is estimated that the project will provide 4% of all electricity demand in the UK and power approximately 3 million homes.
Ian Bonnon, head of offshore wind engineering at GL Garrad Hassan, said: "The exciting prospect of projects such as those at Hornsea are exactly why the staff at GL Garrad Hassan came into the wind business and we are delighted to continue our long-running support of the team developing Hornsea".
SMart Wind will develop projects in the Hornsea zone, comprising 4,735 square kilometres off the UK’s Yorkshire coast. Hornsea is one of nine zones to be developed in the seas around Great Britain as part of The Crown Estate’s Round 3 programme, and with a total planned installed capacity of 32 GW, this is enough to meet a quarter of the UK's electricity needs.
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