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Van Oord starts work on Saint-Brieuc

4C Offshore | Tom Russell
By: Tom Russell 04/05/2021 Van Oord

After extensive preparations, Van Oord's installation vessel
Aeolus is starting the installation of the first of 62 jacket foundations for the Saint-Brieuc offshore wind farm project. The wind farm is located 16.3 kilometres off the coast of Brittany and has a total capacity of 496 MW.

Van Oord is responsible for the transport and installation of 62 jacket foundations for the wind turbines (3 pin piles each) and the 4 foundation pin piles for the offshore substation. A total of 190 pin piles will be installed.

Before installing the very first pin-piles for the jacket foundation this month,
Aeolus was upgraded and a spread of project-specific installation equipment was placed on deck. Before the start of the operations in France, equipment was engineered, constructed and extensively tested to ensure perfect execution of the project.

The vessel has a main crane has a lifting capacity of more than 1,600 tonnes. This makes this vessel suitable for the transport and installation of foundations and wind turbines. Its jacking system with its four giant legs, each measuring 85 metres and weighing 1,280 tonnes, allows it to be jacked up and to work in waters of up to 45 metres deep.

Due to the geotechnical circumstances in the Bay of Saint-Brieuc, harsh weather conditions combined with extremely strong currents, heavy Atlantic swell and very high waves, offshore operations are possible only between March and October. To ensure that
Aeolus can be safely jacked up above sea level the lifting spuds were modified with a flex-pin construction. For the drilling operations, new hydraulic drills were engineered and built to handle all types of soil and rock conditions. A newly designed and created drilling template will function as a positioning and holding-tool to ensure the precise placement of the pin-piles.

Work is being supported by BAUER Spezialtiefbau GmbH who was commissioned for piling works three-legged foundations at 62 locations as well as for a transformer platform based on four piles (190 piles total). BAUER Spezialtiefbau GmbH is responsible for the drilling and injection work as part of the underwater work. 

Van Oord will also be deploying several other vessels on the project in the next months for the removal of boulders, installation of scour protection, transport of pin piles, etc. The installation campaign for the pin piles will be executed in 2021 and 2022. In 2022 the jackets will also be installed.

Van Oord will use the port of Cherbourg as the pin pile marshalling port. The pin piles, coming from Spain, will be stored in France before installation offshore. The port of Cherbourg is in the heart of the Channel and an advanced logistic and industrial hub.

The 496 MW
Saint-Brieuc wind farm, 16 km off the French coast, will feature 62 Siemens Gamesa SG 8.0-167 DD turbines, standing at 207 metres high. It is being developed by Ailes Marines, subsidiary of Spanish energy giant Iberdrola. Covering an area of 75km2 the project will be the first large-scale offshore wind farm in Brittany and, when operational in 2023, it will be capable of generating 1,820 GWh/year of electricity, expected to meet the demands of  835,000 people.

For more information on offshore wind farms worldwide,
click here.  Alternatively, projects worldwide can be viewed on 4C Offshore's Interactive Map.

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