A Chinese heavy-lift vessel has arrived in Scotland carrying concrete foundations for offshore weather stations for two major Scottish windfarm projects.
The 195-metre long Xia Zhi Yuan 6 has berthed up at Cromarty Firth Port Authority’s service base at Invergordon.
The vessel came loaded with two caissons, huge concrete foundations, for use in the Moray Offshore Wind project in the Moray Firth and for the Inch Cape scheme off the coast of Angus.
The Inch Cape array which is being progressed by a joint venture company formed by Repsol Nuevas Energias UK and EDP Renewables UK could eventually see up to 213 turbines erected in a 150km2 development zone lying around 15km offshore.
Cromarty Firth Port Authority said the caissons would be used as foundations for offshore weather monitoring stations.
The structures, which will feature 90-metre-tall steel lattice towers on which equipment will be attached, will measure wind speed and direction as well as temperature and also the air pressure.
Port chief executive Bob Buskie said talks had been taking place for months to bring the caissons to Invergordon.
He said: “Having been involved with the initial test turbines that were established in the Beatrice offshore windfarm in 2010, it was a natural progression that the Port as a whole and Invergordon Service Base in particular would be a strong contender for this next phase.”