Siemens Gamesa has selected LD Tide, a joint venture between Louis Dreyfus Armateurs and Tidal Transit, to supply a crew transfer vessel (CTV) for operations and maintenance work on the Îles d’Yeu and Noirmoutier offshore wind farm in France.
The vessel, one of two CTVs currently being built by Strategic Marine, is scheduled to start operations for the French offshore wind farm mid-2025.
LD Tide, which secured the contract with Siemens Gamesa following an international call for tenders, will operate the new 24-passenger StratCat CTV at the the 488 MW Îles d’Yeu and Noirmoutier offshore wind farm, with the vessel to be crewed by a French crew and operated under French flag, according to Louis Dreyfus Armateurs.
This is the second CTV contract Siemens Gamesa awarded to LD Tide. In 2023, the first CTV, named Acti’vent , started operating at the Fécamp offshore wind farm in France.
The Îles d’Yeu and Noirmoutier offshore wind farm is currently under construction with wind turbine components now arriving at the Nantes-Saint Nazaire Port , from where they will be installed at the project site located 11.7 kilometres from the island of Yeu and 16.5 kilometres from the island of Noirmoutier.
The project, which will comprise 61 Siemens Gamesa 8 MW turbines, is owned by Éoliennes en Mer des Îles d’Yeu et de Noirmoutier (EMYN), a consortium of Ocean Winds, Sumitomo Corporation, Banque des Territoires, and Vendée Energie.
The 488 MW Îles d’Yeu and Noirmoutier offshore wind farm is scheduled to be commissioned at the end of this year.