Wind Energy – Saint-Nazaire
Significantly ahead of schedule, Jan De Nul’s jack-up installation vessel Vole au Vent has successfully completed her mission on the Saint-Nazaire Wind Farm project in France.
The Vole au Vent transported and installed 80 sets of 6 MW Wind Turbine Generators (WTG) for the very first commercial wind farm in French waters.
This wind farm will have, by the end of 2022, a total capacity of 480 MW, which is equivalent to 20% of the Loire-Atlantique’s annual electricity consumption.
The Vole au Vent loaded the 6 MW wind turbines, in sets of four, and then transported the components approximately 12 kilometres offshore for installation on top of the foundations located on the Banc de Guérande seabed, in the northern part of the Bay of Biscay.
On 1 April, the first turbine was loaded in the port. On 5 September, the 80th and very last turbine was successfully installed.
Pieter Vandezande, Project Manager at Jan De Nul Group: “The Saint-Nazaire wind farm is a milestone project for Jan De Nul, as this is France’s first offshore wind farm. We are proud to support the country in its energy transition by making possible the delivery of the first electricity produced by the very first French offshore wind farm. The exceptional installation progress has been the result of an extensive engineering process, optimized vessel preparation and planning, and an excellent collaboration with Parc éolien en mer de Saint-Nazaire and the turbine supplier GE.”
