The Windbase, which would be made up of an accommodation module, a full service hub and heliport fixed to the seabed with so-called MonoBucket foundations, is designed to bring down O&M costs for the next generation of wind farms.

"We’ve seen floating solutions and even man-made islands proposed for projects located far from shore. E.ON’s Amrumbank offshore wind farm will use the island of Helgoland to launch its island based service concept, which will no doubt be a great success and one that [we] will replicate across Europe,” says Windbase project director David Matthews.

“But