Prior to installation, Forth Ports’ Port of Dundee will host the components of the project’s 72 wind turbine generators which will each comprise a four-section tower, three 115.5-metre-long blades and a nacelle housing the electrical equipment. Inch Cape will be the first UK project to feature the Vestas V236-15MW turbines, which will be the largest installed to date.

The first components arrived in early August onboard heavy transport vessel Bravewind, with further shipments arriving almost weekly until late September on six different vessels including Boldwind, Tony Stark and Vestvind.

More than 130 personnel will be working from the vast 170,000 square metre yard, taking delivery of the components, carrying out marshalling, assembly and commissioning before managing the load out and sail away from the port.

A total of 576 components will be offloaded at the port, including 288 tower sections, 216 blades stacked in sets of three, and 72 nacelles. The tower sections will be delivered first, followed by the nacelles and lastly the blades.

The towers for the wind turbines will be assembled quayside, with the tallest reaching 127.4 metres, almost three times the height of Dundee’s tallest building, Dudhope Court.

The wind turbines will then be installed by Cadeler’s new-build turbine installation vessel Wind Mover which will transport them to the offshore site in batches of four, starting in November.

Inch Cape ‘got the keys’ to the Port of Dundee in summer and has carried out enabling works and set up temporary offices and facilities ready for the teams from turbine supplier Vestas and local contractors who will transform the port into a bustling pre-installation yard for the next 12 months.

Given the port’s prominence, Inch Cape’s activity in Dundee is bound to spark local interest, giving onlookers a clear view of Scotland’s energy transition in progress.

Elsewhere on the project, work is underway in Invergordon to mobilise the Alfa Lift vessel, which will install 54 pin piles using a specially designed pile installation frame (pre-piling template) before also installing the project’s 18 jacket foundations. At the offshore site, the burial of the second export cable by CMOS Installer is well progressed and the cable installation vessel Altera’s inter-array cable installation campaign has kicked off.

Inch Cape is owned in a 50/50 equal joint venture by ESB (Ireland) and Red Rock Renewables.