Energy / Viking Energy sets out plans for transporting turbine parts to wind farm site
CONVOYS of Viking Energy turbine parts from Lerwick to the wind farm site in the Central Mainland are expected to start in February and end by the beginning of July.
The first convoy is due to take place on Monday 6 February, with the first turbines set to be erected at the end of March.
Wind farm developer SSE Renewables and turbine company Vestas today (Tuesday) shared details of the companies’ plans for moving turbine components from Lerwick to the site.
Parts of the turbines have been arriving by cargo boat into Lerwick, and the first blades made their appearance last week.
Vestas, which is supplying the 103 wind turbines which make up the wind farm, is responsible for safely managing the process of getting the components from their factories to Lerwick and then delivering them to the Viking site.
There could be up to three convoys on the A970 per day, six days a week. Each delivery could take around an hour.
Vestas’ lead project manager Robert Yeates said: “To transport equipment of this size and weight requires specialist vehicles and expertise, so we have contracted McFadyen’s Transport Ltd, a specialist haulage company based in Scotland with several years’ experience of safely transporting wind turbine components, to carry out the work.
“Obviously safety is our paramount concern and with that in mind, I am pleased that the convoys will be escorted by specialist Police Scotland officers who are coming from the mainland. We’re looking forward to completing the transportation safely and with the minimum of disruption to Shetlanders and visitors alike.”
SSE Renewables’ Aaron Priest said: “The arrival of the turbine components is obviously a landmark milestone in the construction of the wind farm.
“With more than one thousand parts to be transported, it is no small task and we’re pleased to have support from Police Scotland and Shetland Islands Council for completing the task safely and with the minimum of disruption.
“We would like to thank everyone in the local community for their patience over the next few months and we will do everything we can to keep them informed and updated on the convoy movements.”
There will be up to three convoys per day, six days a week (Monday – Saturday) with up to four wind turbine components per convoy.
Convoy travel time is estimated to be around one hour from leaving the port to entering the site.
The times the convoys are expected to leave the port in Lerwick on weekdays (Mon-Fri) are between 6am – 7am, 11am – 12 noon and 1pm – 2pm.
For Saturdays that will be 6am – 7am, 10am – 11am and 12 noon – 2pm.
The timing of the movements has also been planned to seek to ensure that the early morning convoy will be off the public road by 8am and the mid-afternoon convoy will be off by 3pm to avoid the relevant peak travel periods.
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