Ailes Marines reported on 2 December that all the inter-array cables at the Saint-Brieuc offshore wind farm will be buried to minimise the interference for navigation and fishing activities.
According to the developer, due to extreme site conditions a commitment to bury half of the cables was made in 2016. Now it has been determined that using a tool from Prysmian, the project’s cable supplier, would allow for the full burial of the cables.
Prysmian was performing tests at the Saint-Brieuc wind farm this summer with the objective to confirm the technical feasibility of burying 100 per cent of of the inter-array cables in the different types of soil encountered at the project site, and to validate the trencher that would be used for the work.
At the end of the test campaign, it was concluded that the trencher is able to carry out the work in very difficult conditions at the project site, leading to Ailes Marines’ decision to perform cable burial on all the inter-array routes.
“Burying the cables is a measure that further reinforces those already taken by Ailes Marines to allow fishing activities to continue. The Maritime Prefect is the authority which will ultimately regulate navigation and uses within the park” , the developer said.
Prysmian was awarded a contract to provide the inter-array cable systems for the 496 MW Saint-Brieuc offshore wind farm in May. Under the contract, valued at EUR 80 million, the company will supply almost 100 kilometres of three core 66 kV HVAC XLPE-insulated cables.
The construction of the wind farm is scheduled to begin next year, and Prysmian is scheduled to commission the cable systems in 2022.
The 496 MW project is located in the Bay of Saint-Brieuc in Brittany, 16.3 kilometers from the Breton coast. Once operational in 2023, Saint-Brieuc wind farm will produce 1,820 GWh of electricity per year.