March 24, 2008
Scotland

Offshore turbine project delayed

Works on one of the biggest offshore wind farms in the UK has slipped behind its construction schedule.

The 60-turbine Robin Rigg project six miles off the Dumfries and Galloway coast had been targeting a completion date in spring next year.

Developers E.ON have now said it is unlikely to become operational until later in 2009.

The £325m scheme should provide enough energy to power about 150,000 homes once it is completed.

The development has been hit by a number of setbacks since work started last year.

In August, progress was delayed due to the late arrival of a jack-up barge, the Lisa A.

Overall schedule

A month later, 38 workers had to be rescued from the rig after it started to list dangerously.

A replacement barge was brought in but it has since moved on to other work.

E.ON head of construction Adrian Chatterton said work was unlikely to restart on site until May this year.

“We were able to do some work over the winter and we got eight of the foundation piles installed offshore,” he said.

“We hope to start again once the vessel is repaired and ready in May.

“The overall schedule will be impacted a little bit – we were hoping to complete the wind farm towards the end of the first quarter in 2009 but that will probably slip now into the second quarter.”

BBC News

24 March 2008


URL to article:  https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2008/03/24/offshore-turbine-project-delayed/