TotalEnergies-Backed 1.5GW Outer Dowsing Wind Farm Awards Wood Thilsted Monopile Design Contract

Wood Thilsted, the offshore wind engineering consultancy, has moved from Front-End Engineering and Design work into the Detailed Design phase for the foundations of the Outer Dowsing Offshore Wind project, after winning the foundation Detailed Design contract.

A Shift From FEED Into Foundation Detailed Design

The award was announced in London on 19 October 2026 and comes after the consultancy completed FEED activities for the development earlier in the year, extending a relationship that has now carried the company through two successive stages of project delivery.

The contract covers the Detailed Design of up to 100 monopile foundations for the wind farm. In carrying out the work, Wood Thilsted will draw together knowledge of site conditions, structural performance, constructability and environmental stewardship, an integration the company says is intended to support the efficient delivery of the project.

Scale of the Planned Wind Farm

Once constructed, Outer Dowsing will have a capacity of 1.5GW, a scale that will place it among the largest offshore wind farms in the UK. The development is expected to generate enough electricity to supply 1.6 million homes. Its location will be 33 miles off the Lincolnshire coast.

Who Is Behind the Project

The development consortium behind Outer Dowsing brings together TotalEnergies, Macquarie, and Broadhelm Renewables, alongside Gulf Development. The project is estimated to deliver approximately USD 2.6 billion of UK investment over its lifetime.

The economic contribution is expected to extend beyond capital spending. The project is anticipated to support thousands of skilled jobs during the construction period and hundreds more across an operating life of more than three decades, with the benefits flowing to UK communities and supply chains over that period.

The Consultancy's View on Foundation Engineering at Scale

Matthew Simms, Project Director at Wood Thilsted, framed the contract win as a reflection of the working relationship established with the Outer Dowsing Offshore Wind team. In his view, the collaboration built over the past two years underpins the award, and the understanding of the site and project requirements developed during FEED positions the consultancy to deliver foundation solutions that combine technical excellence, efficient execution, and environmental stewardship. Simms also set out a broader argument about how foundation design should be approached as offshore wind projects grow.

As projects continue to scale in both size and complexity, he said, effective foundation design depends on a holistic understanding of the site, the subsurface conditions, structural requirements, and installation constraints. Bringing those disciplines together within a single team, combined with the knowledge accumulated through project development, is what allows more efficient and robust engineering solutions to emerge, according to Simms. He added that Wood Thilsted is proud to be supporting the Outer Dowsing Offshore Wind team as the project advances towards construction and forms part of the next generation of UK offshore wind.

Wood Thilsted's Position in the Offshore Wind Market

Wood Thilsted operates as a specialised offshore wind engineering consultancy, providing engineering and design services across fixed-bottom, deepwater and floating offshore wind projects around the world. Its service range spans site characterisation, concept design, FEED, detailed design, owner's engineering and advisory work, covering projects from early development stages through to execution.

The company characterises the Outer Dowsing award as a further reinforcement of its role in delivering complex foundation and infrastructure solutions for the next generation of offshore wind projects, work it links to unlocking reliable, affordable renewable energy at scale.

From Announcement to Construction

With the Detailed Design contract now in place, Wood Thilsted continues its involvement in Outer Dowsing as the 1.5GW development moves through its engineering stages ahead of construction. The consultancy's progression from FEED into Detailed Design of up to 100 monopile foundations keeps the same engineering team connected to the project as it advances, building on two years of collaboration with the developer consortium of TotalEnergies, Macquarie and Broadhelm Renewables, and Gulf Development. The project itself remains positioned as one of the UK's largest planned offshore wind developments, with its USD 2.6 billion estimated lifetime investment, its thousands of construction-phase jobs and its hundreds of long-term operations roles cited among the contributions expected over a generating life of more than three decades, supplying power to 1.6 million homes from a site 33 miles off the Lincolnshire coast.