For the next three years, GL Garrad Hassan has taken over responsibility for the overall operations and maintenance of the platform. The international renewable energy consultancy will also manage the research programme and associated technical data which will include various metrological and hydrological measurements, long term bird migration patterns and maritime traffic around the platform.
The FINO 2 research and measuring platform in the "Kriegers Flak" area, 35 kilometres north of the island of Rügen in Germany, delivers important data which will ultimately assist in the realisation of offshore wind farms planned for the area. The equipment platform is located ten metres above the surface of the sea. Measuring 15 metres by 15 metres, it offers sufficient space to hold all the required operational equipment and measuring instruments.
GL Garrad Hassan offers support at all project stages from forming strategy through developing sites, design, construction appraisal, operations monitoring and due diligence. The consultancy's WINDTEST team has already obtained nine years experience of managing offshore research platforms at the predecessor, FINO 1, located in the North Sea.
Participants in the project include the research institute WIND-consult, the Institute for Applied Ecology (Institut für Angewandte Ökologie) and the Shipping Institute Warnemünde (Schifffahrtsinstitut Warnemünde).
FINO 2 joins its cousins FINO 1, which collects meteorological, oceanographic and biological data and data on structural dynamics in the German Bight, and FINO 3, which is close to the Dan Tysk, Sandbank 24 and OSB Butendiek wind farms and is designed to collate data to reduce the risks currently associated with building and running offshore wind parks far from the coast.
GL Garrad Hassan is a technical consultancy for the onshore and offshore wind, wave & tidal and solar sectors employing over 650 technical specialists and experts in 35 offices throughout the globe.
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