The 4,800-tonne offshore substation topside has been installed at the 1,075 GW Seagreen wind farm offshore Scotland.

The topside forms the backbone of the offshore wind farm. At 40 metres long, 45 metres wide and 15 metres high, the heavyweight superstructure’s role is to collect and manage 1,075MW of power generated by the 114 Vestas wind turbines before transferring it ashore via around 60km of offshore subsea cabling.

Once onshore, the electricity continues to the new Tealing substation near Dundee via a further 19km of cabling for onward distribution to homes and businesses via the national electricity network.

The topside was lifted from a heavy transport vessel and on to the previously installed 6-legged jacket foundation. The completed structure sits in water depths of around 55m and will be one of the largest AC platforms in UK waters.

Specialist cable installation and support vessels will continue to install the onsite inter-array network of cables to the turbines and to the offshore platform. Another vessel is currently installing the export cable from the landfall point at Carnoustie.

The Seagreen Wind Farm is scheduled to enter operation in early 2023. At 1.1GW, the wind farm will be capable of generating around 5,000 GWh of renewable energy annually which is enough clean and sustainable electricity to power more than 1.6m UK homes. With the equivalent saving of around 2m tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions annually, Seagreen will make a significant contribution to Scotland’s and the UK’s net zero targets.