A suction bucket foundation creates a vacuum to secure the foundation to the sea floor. It will be the first time a suction bucket has been installed in UK waters for the offshore wind sector.
The four-legged suction bucket foundation is designed so that it can be installed quickly and removes the need to drive monopiles into the seabed. It is also considered to be more environmentally friendly and reduces costs.
In October, Sembmarine was contracted by Siemens to design and build the project's offshore substation. It is being manufactured at Sembmarine's Lowestoft facility on the UK's east coast.
Siemens was awarded the transmission contract for Dudgeon by Norwegian developers Statkraft and Statoil in September. Siemens will also supply 67 6MW turbines for the project, located 32 kilometres off the coast in the North Sea.
A prototype of SPT's suction bucket foundation was installed at Dong Energy's Borkum Riffgrund 1 project in the German North Sea last year.
Development of the foundation has been supported by the UK Carbon Trust's offshore wind accelerator (OWA) programme.
Bucket foundations have been used by the oil and gas industry for more than 30 years for platforms installed in the North Sea.
