Buchan Offshore Wind has secured Basic Design Certification from DNV for its preferred BW Ideol-designed concrete Damping Pool® floating foundation, marking a significant technical step for the almost 1GW floating wind farm.

The certificate was formally handed over by Sille Grjotheim, DNV's Director for Floating Offshore Wind, at the Floating Offshore Wind Conference in Aberdeen on 7 October 2026 and presented to Project Director Clare Lavelle, recognising progress in developing and validating the foundation as the scheme advances towards commercial delivery.

DNV's approval provides independent verification of Buchan's chosen floating foundation and strengthens confidence in the technology and its pathway to large-scale roll-out.

Commenting on the certification, Clare Lavelle, Project Director at Buchan Offshore Wind, said: "Achieving DNV Basic Design Certification is a significant milestone for the Buchan project, reflecting the expertise, commitment and hard work of the team and is an important step towards the industrialisation of floating offshore wind in Scotland.

"The opportunity for floating wind is no longer about proving the technology. It is about moving to commercial-scale deployment, establishing serial production and building the supply chains and infrastructure needed to create a competitive new industry. Buchan has an important pathfinder role to play in making that transition and helping establish Scotland's capability to manufacture concrete floating foundations at scale.

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"We have an ambitious but deliverable timetable giving government, investors and the supply chain a clear line of sight to construction by the end of the decade and delivery by the middle of the next.

"With the potential to support around 2,900 Scottish jobs during construction and deliver more than £2 billion in lifetime economic value, Buchan can help translate the UK's floating wind ambition into long-term industrial and economic opportunity. This certification provides further confidence in our pathway to delivery and takes us another step closer to realising that opportunity."

Sille Grjotheim, Director Floating Offshore Wind at DNV, said: "It was a pleasure to formally hand over the Basic Design Certificate to the Buchan team in Aberdeen. Floating wind has already demonstrated that the technology works; the next challenge is to show that projects can be built robustly, financed with confidence and replicated at scale. This certification is an important building block in that transition from technology readiness to investment readiness."

Paul De La Guérivière, Chief Executive Officer of BW Ideol, said: "DNV's certification of the Buchan-specific Damping Pool® design is a strong signal of the maturity of our technology. We are proud to support Buchan Offshore Wind as it moves towards delivery, and we are working to establish in Scotland the serial production capability that commercial-scale floating wind requires."

The Damping Pool® has already been deployed and successfully operated in several floating wind projects worldwide, and its standard 15MW+ platform received DNV Basic Design Certification in May 2025.

Technical maturity, commercial readiness and the ability to fabricate with a local supply chain helped the Damping Pool® retain its number-one ranking in the Technology Leadership Board's independent assessments of floating wind technologies for the North Sea in 2025 and 2026.

Buchan's certified Damping Pool® design builds on that proven platform, tailored for the project's harsh North Sea conditions, and marks an important step in engineering and certification as the project moves towards delivery.

Located about 75km north-east of Fraserburgh, Buchan Offshore Wind is planned at close to 1GW, expected to produce enough secure, home-grown energy to power more than one million homes and contribute to the UK's long-term energy security.

Project partner BW Ideol has an exclusivity agreement with the Ardersier Energy Transition Facility for the manufacture of concrete floating foundations and is working to establish a new serial production facility at the former oil and gas fabrication yard on the Moray Firth.