Fugro's multipurpose vessel Fugro Pioneer (pictured) left the Port of Sunderland in the UK earlier this month to commence a six-month offshore site investigation and survey campaign for Innogy's Sofia offshore wind farm.
Fugro will provide geophysical and geotechnical services over the project's 220-kilometre export cable corridor, as well as further works on the wind farm array.
The objective of the site investigation is to comprehensively characterise subsurface conditions along the cable route corridor to better understand the benthic ecology and offshore archaeology of the site, and to enable detailed design for the proposed wind farm, which will be located 195 kilometres off the coast of north-east England.
The site investigation will include surveys performed from five vessels and will be complemented with a full suite of conventional and advanced laboratory testing. Geophysical survey data will also be acquired using Fugro Frontier and Fugro Seeker.
Two of Fugro's geotechnical vessels will then follow to provide drilling, seabed sampling, and in situ testing.
Once the geo-data is acquired, Fugro will produce a ground model for Innogy that will provide standardised datasets and interpretation.