International marine engineering company SeaRoc has been appointed to provide the installation of the foundation, equipment platform and meteorological mast at Narec's proposed Blyth Offshore Wind Demonstration Site.

Previously awarded to McNulty Offshore Construction Limited, the scope of works will now be undertaken by SeaRoc on behalf of Narec, with vessel confirmation due imminently and load-out scheduled for September 2012. The mast will be installed 3 nautical miles off the coast of Blyth consisting of a 635t tripod foundation, 100t platform and 25t meteorological mast to provide site wind speed measurements alongside the already installed ZephIR 300 wind lidar, supplied by sister company Zephir Ltd.

The platform will collect the necessary environmental data to inform the development, construction and operation of the Blyth Offshore Wind Demonstration Site and will be equipped with a variety of monitoring sensors; with Narec having just begun the contracting for the 'tenanting' of the demonstrator site's 15 foundations - the timing for the installation of the monitoring platform is ideal. .

Strategic Investment Funding of Pounds 18.5m was awarded to the Narec project by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) in February 2010. An additional Pounds 4.35 million was awarded to the project in March 2010 from One North East's Single Programme Fund, to bring the total available funding to Pounds 22.85m.

This joint investment enabled Narec to progress with plans to deliver a 100MW grid connection and an offshore monitoring platform, with the capacity to accommodate up to 20 large-scale prototypes at an offshore wind demonstration site off Blyth, Northumberland. The installation of the met mast by SeaRoc will underpin the ongoing development of the site.

Commenting on the announcement, Toby Mead, Operations Director at SeaRoc noted: "Supported by now parent company Fred. Olsen Ltd., SeaRoc has turned a decade of practical consultancy experience into hands on, full EPCI services for a multitude of wind, wave and tidal developers; in offshore met masts alone we have been provided key roles in 6 of the first 9 UK Round III installations and our overall experience, safety standards and 'lessons learnt' approach ensures that we are very well placed to deliver this project.

The Offshore Demonstration Facility is key to the future of Offshore Wind, both in the UK and globally - SeaRoc are very aware of this and believe there is enormous value for the offshore renewable sector in the development of the Narec site. We view this project as an ideal opportunity to develop a strong working relationship with Narec."

In response, Andrew Mill, CEO of Narec, commented: "The Blyth Offshore Wind Demonstration Site is the largest of its type in the UK and there is strong interest from prospective tenants to deploy prototypes as early as 2014. SeaRoc was selected to deliver the full installation service because of their proven track record in offshore renewables and ability to meet our project timescales. This is a one-off specialist engineering solution and we have been impressed with their innovative approach."