First wind turbine foundation in at Saint-Nazaire OWF

The first monopile foundation has been installed at the Saint-Nazaire offshore wind farm in France, which is also the first installed turbine foundation for a commercial offshore wind farm in French waters.

DEME is using its installation vessel Innovation to install 80 wind turbine foundations at the project site located between 12 and 20 kilometres off the coast of the Guérande peninsula.

The company said on social media that for this work it was using its MODIGA system for the first time. The system, deployed from Innovation, encapsulates the drilling and installation operations and shields them from the adverse Atlantic marine conditions, enhancing operational working time, according to DEME.

At the end of the last month, DEME’s jack-up vessel Sea Installer installed the foundation for the wind farm’s offshore substation, under an EPCI contract Atlantique Offshore Energy, GE Grid Solutions and Société de Dragage International (SDI), part of DEME Group, won for the Saint-Nazaire electrical offshore substation in June 2019.

The wind turbine foundations are being delivered by Eiffage Métal, with Sif producing 80 monopiles and primary steel for the 80 transition pieces, and Smulders manufacturing the transition pieces.

The 480 MW project, also known as Parc du Banc de Guérande, will comprise 80 GE Haliade 150-6MW turbines. Once operational in the summer of 2022, it will become the first commercial-scale wind farm installed in French waters.

The Saint-Nazaire offshore wind farm is being developed by Eolien Maritime France (EMF), a consortium of EDF Renouvelables, Enbridge, and Canada Pension Plan Investment Board.