In Brief

Line strikes
According to a new report, 44% of all excavation work in the UK takes place without a thorough underground asset search, putting the UK’s critical utility infrastructure at constant risk of being accidentally damaged. The report, Digging Up Britain, by LinesearchbeforeUdig (LSBUD) highlights that the incidences of electrical cable strikes reported to the HSE almost doubled to 1244 in 2016/17 while the number of reported pipeline strikes reached 1264.

To download a copy of the Digging Up Britain report, go to: www.linesearchbeforeudig.co.uk/digging-up-britain-report

AD acquisition
Foresight Group LLP has acquired an operational Anaerobic Digestion (AD) plant on the Isle of Wight for an undisclosed sum. The 24-acre site at Arreton has a CHP plant to provide 250kW of electrical power generation capacity to power the facility (and related waste heat use), c.580 Sm3 (standard cubic metres) per hour of biomethane export capacity to grid (plus related CO2 sales) and capacity to process in excess of 50,000 tonnes per annum of energy crops whilst benefiting from FIT and RHI revenue.

World’s largest
Jan De Nul Group has signed a contract for the construction of Northwester 2, the seventh wind farm off the Belgian coast; entering into a partnership with wind farm developer Parkwind (a branch establishment of Colruyt) for the third time. Jan De Nul will be responsible for the design, construction and installation of 23 foundations, the transportation and installation of the cables and the transportation and installation of the wind turbines on top of the foundations.

The Northwester 2 wind farm will have the largest and most powerful wind turbines currently available on the market: the V164-9.5MW, with a rotor diameter of 164 metres.