Offshore Wind Consultants spots geohazards in Poland

Offshore Wind Consultants (OWC) has completed the identification of geohazards in the Polish sector of the Baltic Sea that offshore wind developers should address when planning projects.

According to OWC, Poland’s Baltic Sea is covered by various kinds of sediments, ranging from loam through fine‐grained sand and coarse sands, to gravel and stones, with sediment thickness varying between 50 and 100m.

The study of the geological conditions showed that the key hazards developers should build into the site condition evaluations of projects are boulders, shallow gas, geological faults, chalk and lateral variability of the soil conditions with some bedrock depth uncertainty.

“Although Poland can benefit significantly from a well-established local construction industry that is more than capable of producing foundations such as monopiles and piles, the geology expected at the Polish Baltic Sea areas indicates that the type of turbine foundations to be used here should be carefully assessed,” said Łukasz Sikorski, Head of OWC in Poland.

The findings of the study will be presented at an OWC-hosted webinar on 4 November, with the full report set to be published on 11 November.

This summer, the Polish government and representatives from the local wind energy industry signed a Letter of Intent (LoI) to cooperate on the development of offshore wind.

By 2030, Poland aims to have installed 3.8 GW of offshore wind, with 10 GW of new capacity awarded Contracts for Difference (CfDs).