Offshore Wind Seabed Survey Covers 253 Turbines
The 2026 campaign monitored scour and subsea cable integrity across North Sea and Baltic Sea wind farms.
Updated on Nov. 2, 2026 in Environmental
N-Sea Group completed a seabed monitoring campaign for Vattenfall across offshore wind farms in 2026. The survey covered 253 wind turbine locations and an extensive network of subsea cables, and was completed without incident. The development is a completed operational campaign, not a product or research announcement.
Why it matters
Offshore wind operators depend on continuous data about seabed movement, scour around turbine foundations, and cable condition to keep assets running safely. Campaigns of this scale, spanning multiple North Sea and Baltic Sea farms, show how integrity monitoring is becoming a routine, large-scale data operation rather than a series of one-off inspections.
The campaign surveyed 253 wind turbine locations and about 211 kilometres of inter-array cable at Vesterhav and Kriegers Flak, with 113 turbines in those two farms. The source does not report the measured results on scour or cable condition, so the scale of the data is clear but its findings are not.
The players
N-Sea Group
A Dutch offshore survey and marine services company that deployed its offshore survey fleet and nearshore assets for the campaign.
Vattenfall
A Swedish energy company that commissioned the monitoring campaign across its offshore wind farms as part of ongoing integrity management.
The details
N-Sea deployed its offshore survey fleet and nearshore assets to collect high-resolution data on seabed conditions, scour (erosion of sediment around the base of a structure), and subsea cable integrity. The scope covered inter-array cable corridors linking turbines to one another, export cable routes carrying power to shore, and offshore substations that collect power from the turbines. Coordinating offshore and nearshore survey teams, vessel crews, and onshore personnel was required to cover the full route from open water to coastline.
Timeline
- The seabed monitoring campaign was conducted in 2026.
The Tech Race
The campaign places offshore wind integrity monitoring within the existing North Sea and Baltic Sea farm portfolio, where Vattenfall operates several sites at once. The source does not name a competing operator or a rival survey programme for comparison.
The campaign's data is intended to support Vattenfall's ongoing monitoring and integrity management programme, which helps keep the wind farms and their cables operating. The source does not give a timeline for when the monitoring results will be applied or published.
The takeaway
Offshore wind integrity monitoring is becoming a routine, large-scale data operation that covers turbines and cables across several sites at once. Watch for any published findings from the 2026 survey on scour and cable condition, which would show whether the monitored assets are performing as expected.
Further reading
For broader context on how offshore infrastructure is monitored, explore the Environmental section.
