Global wind and solar company, Mainstream Renewable Power, today announces its preferred contractors to carry out construction works and to supply wind turbines for its proposed 450MW Neart na Gaoithe offshore wind farm to be located off the coast of Fife in Scotland. The move follows the conclusion of an 18 month pre-qualification exercise.
Mainstream has selected Siemens Wind as the preferred supplier of wind turbines and has appointed Marubeni and Technip Offshore Wind Limited (working in consortium) as the preferred supplier of balance of plant EPCI services. The selected parties will now enter exclusive bilateral negotiations with Mainstream.
Having received onshore planning consent in June 2013, the proposed Neart na Gaoithe Offshore Wind Farm is expected to receive a determination on its offshore consent application soon and start preliminary construction works later this year. It is expected to begin generating renewable electricity from 2017 and when fully operational it will have the capacity to deliver 3.7% of Scotland’s electricity demand. Since September 2013 Mainstream has been conducting a detailed geotechnical study of the proposed site in order to ascertain the required ground data in advance of detailed design.
Commenting on the announcement, Mainstream’s Offshore CEO and Executive Director, Andy Kinsella, said: “This is another significant step on the track to getting the Neart na Gaoithe wind farm to financial close this year. The next step will be the receipt of the offshore planning determination. Today’s announcement is about gearing up the supply chain so that companies interested in supplying the project have visibility of the preferred contracting structure. I am delighted to be working with three world class companies who have a proven track record in delivering significant infrastructure projects across the globe.”
· Neart na Gaoithe (NnG) will have a capacity of 450MW
· The project will utilise Siemens SWT-6.0-154 wind turbines
· The NnG site is located in the outer Firth of Forth and is 15.5 kilometres from the coast of Fife at its closest point to land.
· The closest turbine will be 15.8 kilometres from the shore.
· The NnG site will be approximately 81 square kilometres with the turbines sited in water depths of 48 – 54 metres.
Mainstream Renewable Power is one of the world’s leading independent developers of renewable energy projects. With a development pipeline of over 19GW globally Mainstream plans to build more than 1,000 megawatts of wind and solar projects across four continents in 2014. The largest of the projects is the 450MW Neart na Gaoithe offshore wind farm in Scotland.
As Europe’s leading independent offshore wind developer Mainstream is developing just under 8GW of offshore wind projects in England, Scotland and Germany with 4.45GW of secured grid connections for these offshore projects.
It employs more than 180 experienced staff across four continents with offices in Berlin, Cape Town, Chicago, Dublin, Glasgow, Johannesburg, London, Santiago and Toronto.