Peterhead Port Prepares for Pioneering Project

One of the world’s largest and most versatile floating cranes arrived in Peterhead Port in Scotland on Thursday ahead of 11 giant suction bucket foundations.

Setting up base in Peterhead Port, the 25,000-ton Asian Hercules III will lift and install the 77-meter (253-foot), 1,800 ton steel jacket foundations - as heavy as almost 10 Boeing 747s - at the site of Vattenfall’s European Offshore Wind Deployment Centre in Aberdeen Bay. The foundations with their giant buckets, 10.5 meters (34 feet) in diameter, are currently being assembled in Newcastle, U.K. 

The floating crane has a lifting capacity of up to 5,000 tons and a hook height of at least 120 metres (394 feet). It will be used to transport the jacket structures from Peterhead Port to the wind farm site and lower them on to the seabed in Aberdeen Bay.

Two barges will transport the foundations from Newcastle to Peterhead Port for marshalling while the harbor will also accommodate a construction support vessel and barge tugs. The contract for Peterhead Port Authority was awarded by Boskalis which is Vattenfall’s key supplier for the offshore construction and installation including the foundations and cabling.

Once built, the Centre will generate the equivalent of 70 percent of Aberdeen's domestic electricity demand and annually displace 132,977 tons of CO2.