Assembly of ‘Largest Floating Wind Turbine on French Atlantic Coast’ to Start This Spring

Floating Wind

February 23, 2024, by Adrijana Buljan

Construction work on Eolink’s 5 MW floating wind turbine that will be installed at the French SEM-REV test site off the coast of Le Croisic is set to begin this Spring following the arrival of the first components at the Port of Brest on 20 February.

The floater, which will be installed offshore as part of the France-Atlantique Project, will measure 52 metres on each side and stand at a towering height of 150 metres. Once built and commissioned, this will be the largest operational floating wind turbine on the French Atlantic coast, according to Eolink.

The work will start in the spring, once the prefabricated steel blocks are delivered. After it is fully assembled, the wind turbine will be brought to the test site off the coast of Le Croisic, where the anchors were already installed in July 2023.

The commissioning of the 5 MW unit is scheduled for Spring 2025.

Marc Guyot, founder and CEO of Eolink, said: “EOLINK’s ambitions on the port of Brest are strong, and the manufacturing of our 5MW wind turbine on the polder constitutes a first concrete step towards an floating offshore wind industry off the Atlantic coast. The aim is to create an industrial sector that combines energy transition and deindustrialization.”

The assembly of the steel float and superstructures of the wind turbine will be carried out on the Marine Renewable Energies polder under the stewardship of BrestPort. Eolink is collaborating with around ten companies on the assembly process, which is poised to engage an 80-strong workforce, the company says.

As reported earlier this month, the Brest Port Authority (BrestPort) was granted a 40-year concession to manage the commercial port’s operations in a way that revolves around energy transition. The shareholders of the Port of Brest recently signed an agreement that will see EUR 900 million invested in new developments, including establishing the port as a major player in floating wind.

Christophe Chabert, Chairman of the Management Board of BrestPort, said: “This is an essential project for the Port of Brest. It allows BrestPort equipment to be ‘tested’ upstream of commercial parks and to include the port in this development of an industrial floating wind energy sector. It is also a regional project, to support a Brest SME in its desire to rely on BrestPort’s infrastructure and its network of subcontractors.”