All SeaMade Foundations In Place

DEME’s jack-up vessel Innovation installed the last monopile foundation at the project site some 50km off the coast from Ostend on 2 January.

According to the company, a new monopile gripper was deployed onboard the vessel during the installation.

Jack-up vessel Apollo will start the turbine installation in spring and will use the port of Ostend for the load-out of the 58 Siemens Gamesa 8.4MW turbines.

DEME will also install the inter-array cables with cable laying vessel Living Stone. The installation of the export cable was completed in mid-December.

“This is a major milestone in the construction of Belgium’s largest wind farm. SeaMade is a significant step in the country’s energy transition,” said Bart De Poorter, General Manager of DEME Offshore.

“Thanks to the expertise of the teams involved we safely and efficiently completed this project phase. This was also the first successful installation project with the new innovative pile gripper. We now prepare for a successful inter-array cable and turbine installation campaign.” 

SeaMade comprises the 252MW Seastar and the 235MW Mermaid offshore wind projects. The 487MW project, which will be Belgium’s largest offshore wind farm, is expected to be commissioned by the end of 2020.