Site investigation works begin this week on the area of seabed which will be home to npower renewables's Rhyl Flats Offshore Wind Farm, construction of which is planned to start next year.
The works will help to determine the details of what construction methods could be used at the site located 5 miles (8 kilometres) off the North Wales coast between Abergele and Rhos-on-Sea.
Dave Wallis, npower renewables's project manager for the Rhyl Flats Offshore Wind Farm said, "To enable us to decide the best method for constructing the wind farm we need to collect more detailed information, particularly relating to ground conditions both at the site and on the cable routes. The work will involve drilling boreholes and taking samples of the seabed using a jack-up barge vessel."
He continued, "Last month we wrote to local councillors, MPs and AMs and issued a press release to the local media to advise of these upcoming investigations. The vessel undertaking the work will be in the area of the Rhyl Flats site for a period of around 2 to 3 months and we aim to ensure local people are kept abreast of activities taking place on and around the site as we progress with the project."
The contract for the site investigation work which is worth in excess of £1 million has been placed with a UK-based company and the investigation vessel "Excalibur" will be making use of the port facilities at Mostyn in Flintshire from where it will depart to site to undertake the work.
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Editors Notes
npower renewables is a leading UK renewable energy generator, committed to developing and operating wind farms, hydroelectric plant and, through its parent company, biomass co-firing schemes that produce sustainable and environmentally-friendly electricity.
The company operates 15 wind farms in the UK, including North Hoyle Offshore Wind Farm, the first major offshore wind farm to be built in UK waters. In addition to the 267MW of installed wind energy generation that it currently operates, npower renewables also operates 55MW of hydroelectric power, including 5 hydroelectric power stations in North Wales. In November 2003, npower and Greenpeace announced the establishment of the npower Juice fund, in association with our green electricity product npower Juice, which is helping to support the development of "new" renewable energy technologies such as wave and tidal.
npower renewables is a specialist subsidiary of RWE Npower plc, one of the UK's leading integrated energy companies.
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