First Subsea Mooring Connectors for Kincardine OWF

First Subsea has received a contract to provide platform mooring connectors for the floating offshore wind farm, situated off the coast of Aberdeen, UK.

The company secured the contract from Spanish developer and construction company Cobra Group to provide platform mooring connectors (PMCs) for the Kincardine offshore wind farm.

The PMC was developed by the Lancaster-based company to address the shortfall in mooring technology in the floating offshore wind market.

The PMCs will be used to connect the semi-submersible platform to mooring lines at a water depth of 45 meters-143 meters. The connector will allow the mooring lines to be pre-laid on the seabed, prior to the arrival of the wind turbine structure.

Once the structure is in place, the end of the mooring line will be collected from the seabed anchor and connected into the PMC located on the platform’s hull.

Greg Campbell-Smith, Sales and Business Development director said: “As a UK company, First Subsea is proud to be supplying platform mooring connectors for the Kincardine floating offshore wind farm. We are pleased to be part of this project which is at the forefront of the UK’s technology and innovation plans to decarbonize our energy supply.”

The Kincardine offshore floating wind farm is a 50 MW pilot project 15km off the coast, south of Aberdeen. It began generating renewable power in September last year with the installation of the first turbine.

The project will be completed next year with the installation and commissioning of an additional five 9.5 MW turbines each installed on a floating substructure.