A consortium including DEME and Eiffage Métal will design, construct and install eighty steel foundations for the Saint-Nazaire offshore wind farm. The wind farm will be located between twelve and twenty kilometres off the coast of the Guerande peninsula and is the first in France.
The 480 MW Saint-Nazaire offshore wind farm is owned by EDF Renewables and Enbridge. Water depths for the installation range between 12 and 25 metres. Design activities have already kicked off in order to start the production of the foundations in spring 2020. The first foundations will be installed offshore, in rocky seabed conditions, during spring 2021, with completion being planned in summer 2022.
According to Jan Vandenbroeck, General Manager French Subsidiaries at DEME, the project ‘will deliver drilled monopiles, a new step forward in the offshore wind industry.’ Drilling monopolies eliminates the need for pile ramming, and thus offers environmental benefits.
The wind farm is expected to generate enough electricity to supply twenty per cent of the Loire-Atlantique department‘s power.
