The Saint Nazaire Offshore Wind Farm Proceeds Apace

The work operations on the Saint Nazaire offshore wind farm facility are in full swing. The 80 foundations are now in place and 33 wind turbines have been installed. Switched on mid-June, the first units have started producing the first megawatt-hours.

The offshore installation jack-up vessel Vole au Vent commenced the campaign of wind turbine installation operations early in April, and has already completed 7 rotations. The sustained pace of work and favourable weather conditions have permitted the operations to progress more quickly. It has proved possible to reduce the length of calls from 48 hours to 36 hours, thereby offering the chance to gain one week on the notional schedule. The port-based services (lifting, dock handling, sluice dock operations, inshore piloting) are all up to the mark.

Built in 2013, the Vole au Vent is one of the vessels in the fleet of the Jan De Nul Group. Measuring 140 metres in length, the vessel’s crane can lift up to 1 500 tonnes. To install the 80 wind turbines, which are being set one kilometre apart, 20 port calls are scheduled to transport 4 wind turbines in component part form (4 masts, 4 nacelles and 4 x 3 blades) per call between now and October. The rotation time will be approximately 7 days, thereby requiring a permanent buffer stock alongside quay at the Joubert sluice dock.

80 E-Stacks

At the Quai de la Prise d'Eau quay in Saint Nazaire, the e-stack manufacturing operations being carried out by Clemessy, an Eiffage Group Company, will be completed by the end of June, also right on schedule. Each measuring 12 metres high and weighing 150 tonnes, the 80 cylinders are complete electrical cabinets that are inserted in the bottom section of the wind turbine masts.

So as to enable the offshore operations to proceed smoothly, some twenty vessels are currently engaged on a daily basis on the wind farm work project. In total, nearly 600 professionals are taken aboard every day. Led by the EDF RE and Enbridge Inc. consortium, the Saint Nazaire wind farm, France’s first offshore wind farm facility, should come into service progressively between now and December 2022 and will be called upon to produce enough power to cover the equivalent of around of 20 % of the electricity consumption of the Department of Loire Atlantique.

Contacts at Nantes Saint-Nazaire Port -  Ludovic Bocquier & Laurent Connil