Ocean Winds' (OW) 2GW Caledonia Offshore Wind Farm in the Moray Firth, Scotland, has selected Wood Thilsted, an offshore wind engineering consultancy, to create the structural concept design for the project's turbine foundations.

Under the contract, Wood Thilsted will use its ground and metocean data collected across the 429km² Caledonia site over the past two years.

This data will inform the modelling for the preferred foundation design concepts.

The engineering team will draw on the experience gained from Ocean Winds' two neighbouring projects, the operational Moray East and the nearly completed Moray West, which has recently achieved first power.

The design work is expected to be finished by the end of this year.

It will facilitate Caledonia’s initial engagement with the supply chain regarding foundation fabrication and installation.

Onshore and offshore approvals for the Caledonia project will be submitted in the autumn.

Previously, OW collaborated with Wood Thilsted for offshore wind projects in Poland and the US.

Caledonia project director Mark Baxter said: “Caledonia is uniquely positioned to benefit from knowledge and understanding accumulated over the two decades that Ocean Winds has been investing in the Moray Firth.

“The excellent work from our previous projects ensures we have exceptional insights to optimise and de-risk the design from an early stage, supporting our delivery of this important ScotWind project and the UK’s 2030 offshore wind ambition.

“Although we are in deeper waters, some of the soil conditions at Caledonia are very similar to Moray East, where we have used an optimised jacket design. Moray West is constructed with extra-large monopiles – which push the global industry limit on size – providing cost and efficiency benefits in fabrication.

“We have in-depth experience of design, marshalling and installation of both jackets and monopiles in the Moray Firth: the modelling during this phase will enable us to examine various solutions and determine the best design option for the site and the environmental conditions.”