Work is continuing on the Blyth Offshore Demonstrator wind farm project off the Northumberland coast.

The five-turbine scheme is being developed by EDF Energy Renewables and will generate enough low carbon electricity to power around 34,000 homes once finished.

The first gravity-based foundation (GBF) has now been successfully installed onto the sea bed and marks the first time a 'float and submerge' has been used on an offshore wind farm.

Designed and built by Royal BAM Group, the concrete and steel GBFs were developed in the Neptune dry dock on the Tyne and floated down river to the Port of Tyne where extra ballast was added ahead of their tow out to the offshore site location.

At the offshore site, Strukton is using a specialist vessel to pump sea water into the foundation as ballast to lower it to the prepared sea bed.

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Once located correctly in place, the water ballast is replaced with a sand ballast to enable the foundation to rest securely on the sea bed to provide the support structures that act as the foundations for the installation of the wind turbines.

Once all five GBFs are put into position, contractor VBMS will start laying the special 66kV inter array and export cables that will connect the wind farm to the new substation being built at Blyth.

EDF Energy Renewables Chief Executive Officer Matthieu Hue said: "We are delighted to have reached another successful milestone in this ground-breaking project. As well as playing an important role in the generation of low carbon electricity, the Blyth scheme is playing a fundamental role in the in the investigation and testing of new and emerging offshore wind farm installation methods and technologies.

"As a result, this has been a complex and highly innovative project, but to have successfully reached this latest important stage is very satisfying and work will now progress towards completion of the project in the coming months."

Gareth Farrier, Divisional Director, BAM Nuttall, said: "BAM is extremely proud to have successfully demonstrated our gravity base foundations in collaboration with EDF Energy Renewables. The successful first immersion of the structure off the coast at Blyth is the highlight of a very intense period of work, where the whole team has worked extremely hard to attain this significant achievement."

(LM)