Wind Energy – Saint-Nazaire
DEME Offshore, member of DEME Group, has reached its halfway mark installation milestone with the foundation installation of the Saint-Nazaire offshore wind farm in France.
Today’s announcement follows DEME’s August announcement regarding the on-time delivery of the St Nazaire offshore substation.
“Today’s achievement is a testament to the commitment of our entire team and solidifies our reputation as the number one wind farm contractor in the world. Not only are we the first to install a wind farm in rock with industry-first technology, the Saint-Nazaire project is also being carried out in harsh Atlantic conditions,” says Bart De Poorter, General Manager DEME Offshore Renewables.
Having started construction in spring 2021, 40 out of a total of 80 XL foundations are now installed in record times.
The successful deployment of DEME’s industry-first technology is setting a new industry standard for efficient Offshore Wind installation projects in challenging marine conditions and solid rock.
For the installation of the Saint-Nazaire Offshore Wind Farm, DEME Offshore for the first time is deploying its 350-tonne Offshore Foundation Drill (OFD) and tailor-made ‘MODIGA’, another DEME innovation and industry-first technology which allows encapsulating the drilling and installation operations and shields them from the adverse Atlantic marine conditions.
Whereas the OFD was developed with Herrenknecht, a global leader in tunnel boring machines, the design, and development of the MODIGA happened together with TMS, a leading offshore equipment manufacturer.
The complete technological solution is being deployed from DEME Offshore’s installation vessel ‘Innovation’.