Posters

Abstract

The traditional offshore project development route, honed over decades of North Sea oil and gas industry, has had to be turned on its head to suit the burgeoning floating offshore wind (FOW) industry. The tried and tested format of (i) project definition (ii) initial constraint mapping and (iii) well characterised routes of stakeholder engagement to inform any tweaks in design, rounded off with (iv) an often formulative Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA), does not apply to FOW. Due to a combination of significantly larger development footprints, onshore infrastructure requirements, novel technologies, stakeholder unfamiliarity and complex environmental impact pathways, the requirements of environmental, societal, and economic sensitivities have to drive project design, not just flex it. The Salamander project, an innovation FOW project in the Scottish North Sea, has been designed based on in-depth technical and environmental constraint analysis at the site-selection stage along with early-doors stakeholder and supply chain engagement in order to de-risk the project from the earliest project concept stages.