COWI gets job on 2 GW of Scottish offshore wind projects

Engineering consultancy COWI has been hired to deliver a preliminary front end engineering and design (pre-FEED) for two ScotWind offshore wind projects with a combined capacity of 2 GW that are developed by French-Belgian consortium Thistle Wind Partners (TWP).

The contract concerns the Ayre and Bowdun offshore wind farms, which are set to enter construction in 2029 and become operational in 2032-2033, the company said in a statement on Tuesday.

COWI, which has so far consulted on over 10 offshore wind projects in the UK and Ireland, will provide essential analysis for the foundation design of each project, taking into consideration both electrical and civil elements. It will also work on road and railway design to support decisions on onshore cable routing and associated crossings.

Ayre is located to the east of Orkney and is planned as a floating-foundation offshore wind farm. Bowdun, situated off the coast of Aberdeenshire, will be a fixed-bottom complex. The two projects, of 1 GW each, were allocated as part of the ScotWind leasing round in 2022.

“Our projects have a busy year ahead with major consenting and engineering milestones ahead of them in 2024,” said Ian Taylor, project director at TWP, a consortium comprising DEME Concessions NV, Qair Marine SAS and Aspiravi International NV.

Earlier this year, TWP published the Onshore Scoping Report for the Ayre project.

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