DEME’s Innovation installation vessel has beenloaded up in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, with the first 58 monopiles and transition pieces for construction of the SeaMade wind farm in the Belgian North Sea.
Once online in 2020, the 487MW wind farm, developed by a project consortium made up of Otary, Electrabel and Eneco by marrying the neighbouring Mermaid (235MW) and Seastar (252MW) projects, will be the largest off Belgium.
DEME’s workscope includes installation of the foundations and two offshore substations, as well laying the inter-array cables and 220kV high voltage export line to shore.
“For now, this is the last wind farm developed in the Belgian North Sea,” said Luc Vandenbulcke, DEME’s CEO.
“Thanks to our country being at the forefront of offshore renewable energy, we had the opportunity to develop a leading cluster of Belgian companies involved in the construction of offshore wind farms globally.”
SeaMade CEO Mathias Verkest added: “We are proud that SeaMade brings the Belgian offshore wind capacity to 2.26GW by 2020, exactly as has been anticipated by the Belgian federal government. This capacity will produce more than 8TWh annually, which is approximately 10% of [national] electricity demand and 50% of the total household consumption.”
Belgium’s government has set a target of doubling the country’s offshore wind capacity to 4GW by 2025.
