DEME’s trio starts working at Saint-Nazaire offshore wind farm

DEME’s vessels Neptune, D’Artagnan, and Bonny River have been deployed on the Saint-Nazaire offshore wind project, with some of the work now underway at the site located some 12 kilometres off the coast of the Guérande peninsula in France.

The company’s cutter suction dredger D’Artagnan and trailing suction hopper dredger Bonny River are currently on site, working on seabed preparation for the offshore wind farm.

The jack-up vessel Neptune, which is set to start the pre-piling works for the project’s offshore substation (OSS), was reported by French media to have encountered an issue with its propulsion on 27 August while sailing to France. The vessel was reportedly towed to the Port of Brest for repair on the same day. According to available AIS data, Neptune is currently moored in Brest.

“Neptune’s propulsion issues were due to contaminated fuel bunkered en route to Saint-Nazaire”, a spokesperson from DEME told our sister site OffshoreWIND.biz, adding that the vessel will install four piles for the Saint-Nazaire OSS in September.

The installation of the jacket and topside is scheduled for the second half of 2021.

The company is in charge of the design, manufacturing and installation of the OSS in a consortium comprising Atlantique Offshore Energy, GE Grid Solutions and SDI (DEME).

The 480 MW Saint-Nazaire offshore wind farm, also known as Parc du Banc de Guérande, will comprise 80 GE Haliade 150-6MW wind turbines, expected to be fully commissioned in the summer of 2022.

The project, set to become the first commercial-scale wind farm installed in French waters, is being developed by Eolien Maritime France (EMF), a consortium between EDF Renouvelables and Enbridge.