Installation of Dragon 12 seabed anchor completed successfully

Minesto, leading developer of ocean energy, has today successfully completed the installation of a drilled and grouted seabed anchor solution for the Dragon 12, at the company’s production site offshore in Vestmannasund, Faroe Islands. The installation was carried out by Minesto’s collaboration partner Leask Marine Ltd. The Dragon 12 kite system is assembled, tested and ready for installation, commissioning, and power production.

The innovative seabed anchor solution is developed by Leask Marine together with Minesto and has for the first time been installed. The Dragon 12 system is on the quayside in Vestmanna and is ready for installation and electricity production.

Compared to a traditional gravity-based foundation, seabed anchoring reduces costs for tidal energy array buildout and lowers carbon emissions.

“We are very pleased to have the Dragon 12 anchor in place. The solution builds on a new method where a smaller installation vessel carries out 24-hour drilling and grouting of a steel cylinder. We save thousands of tonnes of concrete and steel by moving away from gravity-based foundations. This method promises to become cost effective for future tidal energy arrays and the carbon footprint is minimal”, said Dr Martin Edlund, CEO of Minesto.

Douglas Leask, Managing Director of Leask Marine said ”This is a huge achievement for the rig’s first outing, drilling such a large size of pile, lower than 80m of water depth, in a tidal site. We express our gratitude to Minesto for their trust in our team, and our new revolutionary Submersible Drilling Rig (SDR) technology that played a pivotal role to this project”.

About the seabed anchor solution:

The anchor solution consists of a steel cylinder that is drilled into the seabed. The cylinder is then grouted in place and ready for use after the concrete hardening. A transition piece allowing the connection of the export cable and installation of the tether and kite is added to the cylinder.