ABPmer assessing conditions for planned Irish Sea wind farm

Offshore staff

SWINDON, UK – RWE Renewables has commissioned ABPmer to support the design of the Awel y Môr wind farm off the North Wales coast in the Irish Sea.

ABPmer is assessing sediment mobility and scour potential at the site, said to be in a dynamic area of seabed. Its findings will support selection of the export cable route, engineering of the wind turbine foundation, and the array/export cable design.

To map the behavioral characteristics of the seabed at the site and along the export cable corridor, ABPmer will analyze oceanographic data from its SEASTATES metocean database, recent and past seabed surveys, and geophysical data compiled for this project.

High resolution hydrodynamic and sediment transport modeling will be applied to map long-term regional scale sediment transport pathways.

Heidi Roberts, ABPmer project director, said: “Our seabed mobility risk mapping tools are helping RWE understand present and future bedform migration…”

In addition, GIS analysis of coastal data will help determine potential coastal erosion and vertical changes in beach levels at the landfall during the project’s lifetime (for the landfall selection and design process).

RWE Renewables aims to have Awel y Môr fully operational in 2030.

02/07/2022