Belgian dredging and offshore contractor DEME has completed the installation of 58 monopile foundations and two offshore substation foundations at the SeaMade offshore wind farm. With a 487-megawatt capacity, SeaMade is the largest offshore wind farm in Belgium.

Installation works kicked off in September 2019 with DEME’s offshore installation vessel Innovation. Turbine installation will start in spring 2020 with offshore installation vessel Apollo and with the port of Ostend as load-out port for the Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy 8.4-megawatt turbines. DEME will also install all inter-array cables with cable lay vessel Living Stone after having installed the export cable.

New Monopile Gripper

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.

SeaMade

SeaMade offshore wind farm integrates the two wind sites Mermaid and Seastar. The first is located 54 kilometres off the coast from Ostend, at a water depth of approximately forty metres and will deliver 235 megawatts. The 252-megawatt Seastar site is located forty kilometres from shore, at a depth of 38 metres. Before the end of 2020, SeaMade will provide renewable energy to 485,000 households in Belgium.