Belgian company installs turbines in first French offshore wind farm

Belgian civil engineering company Jan De Nul’s Offshore Jack-Up Installation Vessel ‘vole au vent’ has kicked off her mission on the Saint-Nazaire Wind Farm project in France. In total, she will transport and install 80 units of 6 MW Wind Turbine Generators (WTG) for the construction of the very first offshore wind farm in French waters.

This wind farm will have a total capacity of 480 MW, which equals 20% of the Loire-Atlantique’s electricity consumption needs.

After 5 weeks of maintenance and project preparations in the port of Ostend in Belgium, the Vole au vent left for Saint-Nazaire, where she arrived on 31 March. From this marshalling harbour, the Vole au vent will load the 6 MW wind turbines and transport them offshore, for installation on top of the Banc de Guérande seabed formation in the northern part of the Bay of Biscay.

In sets of four, the turbines will be loaded on board of the Vole au vent and transported 12 km offshore, where the 1,500-tonnes main crane of the vessel will mount them on top of monopile foundations. The installation of one turbine takes approximately 24 hours, depending on the weather conditions, so each installation trip will take about 5 days. The very last turbine is scheduled to be mounted in Autumn 2022.

Philippe Hutse, Offshore Director at Jan De Nul Group: “We are excited to contribute to the further development of renewable energy and offshore wind, in particular, in France. And we are especially proud to support the country in its energy transition by paving the way for the delivery of the first electricity produced by the very first French offshore wind farm. We are also looking forward to working again with Saint-Nazaire Offshore Wind, and to confirm our skills and competencies by making the installation of the Offshore Wind Turbines in collaboration with GE a great success.”

The Saint-Nazaire Offshore Wind Farm will produce 20% of the French Department Loire-Atlantique’s electricity consumption needs and will contribute to achieving the target of 40% renewable energy by 2030 and carbon neutrality by 2050 in France, said an official statement.