Cerulean adds to giant Scottish floating wind project supplier line-up

Cerulean Winds has selected industrial contractor Bilfinger as its preferred choice to provide operations and maintenance (O&M) services for the future development of the Aspen, Beech and Cedar floating offshore wind farms in Scotland.

The London-headquartered developer has set about choosing its preferred suppliers for the development in what it calls an alliance of companies and, by doing so, has said it expects to reproduce the EPCI contractual model and ultimately expedite the project more efficiently.

The three wind farm leases were acquired under Crown Estate Scotland’s Innovation and Targeted Oil & Gas (INTOG) leasing round in 2023.

Under the INTOG framework, each of the three areas was nominated with 1GW of capacity, geared toward decarbonising offshore oil and gas production.

Cerulean has since advanced plans for potentially doubling capacity on all three areas. This would be achieved by making adjustments in turbine capacity and the density of distribution.

The company states that the three areas can host over 300 turbines.

Dan Jackson, a founding director of Cerulean Winds, said the selection of Bilfinger represented the story of the North Sea transition "in a nutshell" with a leading oil and gas service provider redeploying its skilled workforce and expertise to scale up floating wind.

Bilfinger will advise on O&M during the detailed design of the Aspen site and, according to Cerulean Winds' statement, this approach will facilitate adoption of innovative technologies at an early stage.

Sandy Bonner, head of engineering & maintenance at Bilfinger UK, said: “By integrating innovative technologies and collaborating closely with the consortium, we aim to ensure the safe, efficient, and sustainable operation of the Aspen, Beech, and Cedar sites.

“Our early involvement in the design phase will allow us to optimise maintenance strategies and support the project's ambitious goals of industrial decarbonisation and enabling electrification of oil and gas facilities."

Other preferred supplier agreements already signed by Cerulean include the selection of NOV for floating foundations, using the US engineering company's semi-submersible design.

Siemens Energy has been selected for electrical transmission and Worley will be systems engineer and interface manager.

Cerulean has also engaged delivery partners for transport and installation as well as marshalling.

While all three sites were chosen for their proximity to oil and gas producing assets, development plans show Aspen advancing first, with an early development phase targeted for 2028/29.

These plans include an HVAC transmission line from Aspen, which is closer to the Scottish coast, and HVDC lines from Cedar and Beech.

In the case of Beech, plans include a potential HVDC transmission line to Germany, in a further reflection of the vision of a 6GW project.