Piling Work at Saint-Brieuc Offshore Wind Farm Completed, 35 Wind Turbines Installed

Wind Farm Update

August 28, 2023, by Adrijana Buljan

The installation of the jacket foundation piles at the Saint-Brieuc offshore wind farm in France has been completed and Van Oord’s vessel Aeolus, which was being used to perform the work, has now left the project site, Ailes Marines, the project development company wholly owned by Iberdrola, said on 28 August.

All locations that (will) house jacket foundations, including 62 wind turbine positions and one offshore substation position, have been drilled and are equipped with piles, and the rest of the offshore construction work continues according to schedule, according to the developer.

Installation of the jacket foundations restarted at the end of June, with 51 jackets in place so far, as well as 35 of the project’s 62 Siemens Gamesa 8 MW wind turbines, which are being installed by Fred. Olsen Windcarrier’s vessel Brave Tern.

The 496 MW Saint-Brieuc offshore wind farm, located 16 kilometres off the northwest coast of France in the Bay of Saint-Brieuc in the English Channel, produced its first green power in July 2023 and is planned to be fully operational later this year.

The Aeolus installation vessel started working at the Saint-Brieuc offshore wind farm site in May 2021 and completed the first phase of work at sea on 31 October that year.

The first piling campaign, which was concentrated in the northern zone of the wind farm site to allow for fishing activities in the southern part, faced several setbacks, including malfunctioning drilling equipment, and work being halted by local fishermen.

After a winter break following the completion of the first phase, Aeolus resumed the piling work in March 2022 and the first batch of wind turbine jackets was installed at pre-piled locations by Subsea 7’s vessel Seven Borealis a few months later.