DEME Installs Saint-Nazaire OSS Foundation

DEME Group’s jack-up vessel Sea Installer has installed the foundation for the offshore substation of the Saint-Nazaire offshore wind project in France.

The installation of the four subsea foundation piles was completed on 21 April, in record time despite having to be drilled into rock, according to DEME.

The company added that its vessel Innovation is set to start the installation of the 80 monopile foundations and XL monopile rock drilling at the project.

Saint-Nazaire, also known as Parc du Banc de Guérande, will comprise 80 GE Haliade 150-6MW turbines located between 12 and 20 km off the coast of the Guérande peninsula.

A consortium of Atlantique Offshore Energy, GE Grid Solutions and Société de Dragage International (SDI), part of DEME Group, won the EPCI contract for the Saint-Nazaire electrical offshore substation in June 2019.

The 480 MW project is scheduled to be operational in the summer of 2022 when it will become the first commercial-scale wind farm installed in French waters.