Bureau Veritas, a world leader in testing, inspection and certification, has been selected to undertake the project certification of Erebus, the first offshore windfarm in the Celtic Sea, in Wales (UK) and one of the largest floating offshore wind projects in the world.

Located 44km from the Pembrokeshire coastline in up to 75m water depth, the Erebus project aims to be fully operational by 2026 and will deliver up to 100MW of clean energy, powering 93,000 homes per year.

The Erebus project is the result of TotalEnergies teaming up with Simply Blue Group in a Joint Venture named Blue Gem Wind. Principle Power Inc. will design the floating platforms, based on the latest generation of their Windfloat® technology. This floater concept received an “Approval in Principle” from BV in 2016. The ballasted, semi-sumbersible platform supports latest generation multi-megawatt wind turbine generators. The three-column platform is moored with a five-line catenary mooring system and is equipped with a closed-loop ballast system to compensate for changes in mean wind velocity and direction.

BV will be providing independent verification and project certification in line with regulatory requirements. The scope of the evaluation includes all the design phases: site condition assessment, design basis evaluation, integrated load analysis and detailed design evaluation for all the components of the floating wind turbines, including the inter-array cables. To support the design documentation review, BV will provide independent analysis leveraging its integrated modeling tool Opera – which accounts for all components of a floating asset or wind turbine, covering everything from mooring systems to blades. Opera addresses the complex physics of aero-hydro couplings and multibody interactions, and manages sea-keeping and station-keeping for floating structures.

BV’s certification scope is planned to include all post-design phases from manufacturing to operations, including Transportation & Installation (T&I) and commissioning. For this purpose, Blue Gem Wind can rely on Bureau Veritas’ worldwide network of surveyors, present in 140 countries, to provide local support to fabrication and operations activities, wherever they are required.

Paul Shrieve, Vice President Global Services at Bureau Veritas Marine & Offshore, commented: “We are honoured to be part of this new venture in the Celtic sea, which is essential in meeting the UK 2050 Net-Zero target to mitigate global warming. Supporting new low carbon supply chain opportunities and creating long-term value for the region is at the core of our mission at Bureau Veritas. It is good to see we continue to grow our local engineering and certification capability here in the UK. I am also proud to see our continued leadership in mitigating risks in Marine Renewable Energy, through our expertise and tools such as Opera, giving our clients the peace of mind they need when de-risking these complex projects. We enable innovative projects to evolve rapidly towards go-to-market solutions, which is very rewarding”.