The first monopiles have been installed at the Rentel offshore wind farm, according to DEME Group, whose daughter company GeoSea is carrying out the works with its installation vessel Innovation.
Rentel, the fifth offshore wind farm to be constructed within the Belgian North Sea, will comprise 42 Siemens D7 type wind turbines, each with an individual installed capacity of 7.35MW.
The project is being developed by Rentel NV, a consortium of eight Belgian shareholders, including Otary Offshore Energy, DEME Group and Elicio NV.
DEME, with its subsidiaries GeoSea and Tideway, is the EPCI contractor for the wind farm and has awarded Sif and Smulders to manufacture the wind turbine foundations . STX France will deliver the offshore substation , Prysmian is in charge of supplying the inter-array cables , while ABB will provide the export cable system .
The project is being constructed from the Port of Ostend, where the operational management of the wind farm will also be based.
The Rentel offshore wind farm is scheduled to become fully operational by the end of 2018.