56 out of the 80 GE Haliade 150-6 MW wind turbines have been installed at the 480 MW Saint-Nazaire wind farm site offshore France with the first 25 per cent of the wind farm already commissioned by mid-July.
Jane De Nul’s jack-up Vole au vent is transporting the wind turbines from the Nantes Saint-Nazaire port and installing them at the first commercial-scale offshore wind farm in France.
The first offshore wind turbine was installed at the site located between 12 and 20 kilometres off the coast of the Guérande peninsula in the first half of April. Last month, the wind farm delivered its first power to the French national grid.
The installation of the inter-array cables is also currently underway, with the Olympic Triton laying 70 of the 80 cables so far.
Back in 2018, Louis Dreyfus TravOcean (LDTVO) and Prysmian secured the contract for the supply and installation of inter-array cables.
Under the agreement, Prysmian was responsible for cable manufacturing, while LDTVO is responsible for transporting the cables to the Montoir-de-Bretagne logistics base, storing, and installing them between the wind turbines.
At the end of May, all 80 foundations were installed using DEME Offshore’s installation vessel Innovation .
The construction of the wind farm is scheduled to be completed in December 2022.
Saint-Nazaire, also known as Parc éolien en mer du Banc de Guérande, is owned and developed by Eolien Maritime France (EMF), a consortium of EDF Renouvelables, Enbridge, and Canada Pension Plan Investment Board.