Jan De Nul’s jack-up Vole au vent is installing the 37th of the 80 GE Haliade 150-6MW wind turbines at the Saint-Nazaire wind farm site offshore France.
Vole au vent is transporting the wind turbines from the Nantes-Saint Nazaire Port and installing them at the first commercial-scale offshore wind farm in France, being built between 12 and 20 kilometres off the coast of the Guérande peninsula.
The first wind turbine was installed at the site in the first half of April, and the wind farm delivered first power to the French grid in the first half of June.
The installation of the inter-array cables is also ongoing, with the Olympic Triton laying 56 of the 80 cables so far.
Louis Dreyfus TravOcean (LDTVO) and Prysmian secured the contract for the supply and installation of inter-array cables for the project back in 2018.
Under the agreement, Prysmian was responsible for cable manufacturing, while LDTVO is responsible for transporting the cables to the Montoir-de-Bretagne logistics base, storing, and installing them between the wind turbines.
At the end of May, DEME Offshore completed the installation of the 80 monopile foundations at the 480 MW wind farm.
Saint-Nazaire, also known as Parc éolien en mer du Banc de Guérande, is owned and developed by Eolien Maritime France (EMF), a consortium of EDF Renouvelables, Enbridge, and Canada Pension Plan Investment Board.
The construction of the wind farm is planned to be completed in December 2022.