When operational, the SeaMade offshore wind farm will supply 485,000 Belgian homes with clean energy
Deme’s ‘Gulliver’ vessel installing one of the substations at SeaMade. (Credit: DEME.)
Belgian offshore services provider Deme Group announced that it has completed installing two offshore substations at the 487MW SeaMade offshore wind farm, located in the Belgian part of North Sea.
Weighing 1,200 tonnes each, the substations are considered to be the heart of the offshore wind farm. The substations transform the wind power generated from each of the turbines to 225kV, which in turn allow the electricity to be transmitted to shore via Elia’s Modular Offshore Grid (MOG).
Using its cable installation vessel Living Stone DEME earlier completed the installation of the export cable that will transmit the electricity from the SeaMade wind farm.
DEME offshore general manager Bart de Poorter said: “Despite the challenging weather conditions over the past weeks the SeaMade project is firmly on track.
“The successful installation of the two offshore substations was only made possible thanks to the close cooperation between the SeaMade team and our partners Smulders, ENGIE Fabricom and Tractebel, as well as the highly skilled experts on board of our vessels.”
The substation installation was completed by DEME using its heavy lift vessel Gulliver, operated by one of its subsidiaries Scaldis.
SeaMade offshore wind farm CEO Mathias Verkest said: “I am thrilled to see this oversized mecano being put together, bringing us closer step by step to the start of green energy production for 485.000 households as from autumn this year.
“A big thank you to the SeaMade team and all parties involved for the close cooperation and joined efforts to make this happen.”
Turbine installation at the wind project is expected to begin this spring.
Deme said that it will use its offshore installation vessel Apollo for the turbine installation.
The Apollo vessel was used for the precision foundation piling operation at the Moray East offshore wind farm in Scotland.
Siemens Gamesa’s turbines will be installed at the wind farm
The SeaMade wind farm will be powered by 58 of Siemens Gamesa’s 8.0-167DD 8MW wind turbines.
When operational, it could generate enough clean energy to power 485,000 Belgian homes with clean energy, while offsetting 500,000 tonnes of CO2 emissions annually.