Abstract
Statoil has through Hywind (Scotland) Limited (HYSL) received full planning permission for onshore works and marine licence for offshore works for the “Hywind Scotland Pilot Park Project” (HYS) in 2015. Hywind (Scotland) Limited is currently owned by Statoil (75 %) and Masdar (25 %). Statoil will act as the Operator of HYS for both the construction and operation phase of the project.
The wind farm consists of 5 floating turbines moored to the seabed by three anchors each, four infield cables and one export cable connecting the wind farm to Peterhead Grange substation (Figure 1-1).
This document presents the Decommissioning Programme for the offshore elements of HYS and has been prepared according to the requirements under Section 105 of the Energy Act 2004. This Decommissioning Programme is applicable to all offshore components of the wind farm including the wind turbines, substation, foundations, export and inter-array cables, scour protection and cable protection, if required.
HYS has a technical design lifetime of 20 years and it is assumed that the timing, methods and costs associated with decommissioning will have developed significantly in this time. This document, therefore, aims to establish and describe the feasibility of decommissioning. The actual methods, durations and costs remain uncertain at this stage in the process. The programme will, hence, be reviewed towards the end of the lifetime of the project to reflect best practice at the time and the results of any surveys undertaken at the site. The decommissioning procedure will also be subject to the award of a new Marine Licence by the Marine Scotland assuming the current process is still in place at the time of decommissioning.