GROUTING firm FoundOcean yesterday won a £4.4 million contract to protect the bases for 108 turbines in the West of Duddon Sands offshore wind farm being built by Dong Energy and ScottishPower in the Irish Sea.
The contract – which will be completed by staff from FoundOcean’s offshore services base in Livingston – was awarded by Netherlands-based contractors Boskalis Offshore and Volker Stevin Offshore.
The wind farm is located near the Ormonde project, where FoundOcean grouted the foundations for 31 jackets in 2010.
West of Duddon Sands will also lie close to the Walney I and II wind farms.
The firm will use the Masterflow grout developed by German chemicals giant BASF for the West of Duddon Sands project. Masterflow has already been used by wind farm developer RWE on its Gwynt y Môr and Nordsee Ost farms.
In March, enterprise minister Fergus Ewing opened FoundOcean’s expanded offshore services base in Livingston.
The business has diversified, taking its expertise from the oil and gas sector and applying it to the expanding offshore renewable energy industry.
FoundOcean was launched in 1966 as Wimpey Laboratories, before being bought by SeaMark Systems in 1993. It was rebranded as FoundOcean in 2006 and is now owned by its managers.