The last monopile foundation landed on the seabed on 2nd January. With a 487 MW capacity SeaMade is the largest offshore wind farm in Belgium.
Installation work commenced in September 2019 with DEME’s offshore installation vessel ‘Innovation’ assisting. Turbine installation will start in spring 2020 with offshore installation vessel ‘Apollo’ and with the port of Ostend as a load-out port for the Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy 8.4 MW turbines. DEME will also install all inter-array cables with cable lay vessel ‘Living Stone’ after successfully having installed the export cable.
During foundation installation a new monopile gripper, mounted on offshore installation vessel ‘Innovation’, has been deployed. This new pile gripper excels in safety, versatility and piling accuracy, enabling ‘Innovation’ to install monopile foundations all year round. Furthermore, for ‘Innovation’s’ next project a noise mitigation system will be integrated for minimising subsea noise during installation activities.
“This is a major milestone in the construction of Belgium’s largest wind farm” said Bart De Poorter, General Manager DEME Offshore. “SeaMade is a significant step in the country’s energy transition. 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 will provide renewable energy to 485,000 households in Belgium during the course of 2020.
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