The 1.1GW Inch Cape Offshore Wind Farm in the North Sea off Scotland, a joint venture between ESB and Red Rock Renewables, has completed the installation of all 54 of its monopile foundations.
Work began in December 2025, with installation carried out by Jan De Nul’s heavy lift vessel the Les Alizés.
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The vessel, equipped with a 5,000t crane capable of reaching 160m at full height, transported and installed five monopiles per trip from the Port of Leith in Edinburgh.
This process made use of an IQIP pile lifting tool and an IQIP hydraulic impact hammer to secure the foundations in the seabed.
The next phase of construction at Inch Cape will involve the installation of transition pieces and 18 jacket foundations with 54 pin piles, as well as additional cable and turbine installation.
Around 100 personnel are based at the Port of Leith, where remaining components are loaded out for ongoing offshore works, with support from Global Energy Solutions.
Les Alizés was on long-term charter to RWE, which agreed to lease the vessel to the Inch Cape project during a gap in its own schedule.
Planned offshore works for the remainder of the year include installing transition pieces, jacket foundations, the outstanding segments of the second export cable, initial array cables and the first turbines.
The project is scheduled to begin generating electricity in late 2026 and aims to reach full commercial operation in 2027.
The finished wind farm will comprise 72 Vestas 15MW turbines.
Inch Cape project director John Hill said: “The installation of all our monopiles is a huge achievement for the Inch Cape team and confirmation of the project’s momentum as we continue an extremely busy period of offshore construction activity.
“The scale of Inch Cape’s monopiles is leading-edge for the industry and to reach this milestone the project has overcome significant challenges. These are amongst the largest-ever monopiles to be installed for an offshore wind farm – they have diameters of 11.5m, are up to 102m in length and weigh around 2,300t.
“This milestone is the culmination of extraordinary efforts by many contractors including SLPE for the engineering design, monopile suppliers CWHI and Dajin for the fabrication and delivery, and Forth Projects for its offloading and marshalling work.”
Installation engineering for these large-scale monopiles required detailed analysis to address complex ground conditions.
The project received support from Cathie’s geotechnical team to help mitigate associated risks.
To protect marine mammals during construction, measures were implemented such as acoustic deterrent devices and a gradual ramp-up of piling activities.
