France’s first offshore wind farm now has its first wind turbine

GE Renewable Energy announced yesterday connected Twitter that the archetypal GE Haliade 150-6 megawatt (MW) upwind turbine has present been installed astatine St. Nazaire, France’s archetypal offshore upwind farm.

Luxembourg-based maritime infrastructure institution Jan De Nul is installing the upwind farm’s turbines in the bluish portion of the Bay of Biscay, disconnected France’s occidental coast. Its vessel, the Vole au Vent, volition transport and instal 80 GE Haliade 150-6MW upwind turbines.

By the extremity of March, 60 monopile foundations and 22 inter-array cables were installed.

Offshore Engineer explains however the installation volition work:

In sets of four, the turbines volition beryllium loaded connected committee of the Vole au Vent and transported 12 km offshore, wherever the 1,500-tonnes main crane of the vas volition equine them connected apical of monopile foundations. The installation of 1 turbine takes astir 24 hours, depending connected the upwind conditions, truthful each installation travel volition instrumentality astir 5 days. The precise past turbine is scheduled to beryllium mounted successful autumn 2022, Jan De Nul said Thursday.

The 480-MW upwind workplace volition beryllium sited betwixt 12 and 20 km (7 and 12.4 miles) disconnected the seashore of the Guérande peninsula. It’s owned and being developed by Eolien Maritime France (EMF), a consortium of EDF Renouvelables, Enbridge, and Canada Pension Plan Investment Board.

It took an full decennary – the French authorities approved St. Nazaire successful 2012 – to motorboat the country’s archetypal offshore upwind task arsenic a effect of section absorption and ineligible challenges. GE makes overmuch bigger upwind turbines now, but this upwind workplace has to instrumentality with 6 MW turbines due to the fact that that’s what was primitively approved.

St. Nazaire offshore upwind workplace is scheduled to beryllium operational by the extremity of 2022. 

Photo: GE Renewables

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