The new subsea drill will be deployed from Deme Offshore’s installation vehicle ‘Innovation’
Deme Offshore and Herrenknecht to build new subsea drill for French offshore wind farm. (Credit: Pixabay/Anette Bjerg.)
Deme Offshore has signed an agreement with Herrenknecht to fabricate a subsea drill to be installed at the Saint-Nazaire offshore wind farm in France.
Owned by EDF Renewables and Enbridge, the offshore wind farm will be located between 12km and 20km off the coast of Guérande peninsula in western France.
Last year, a consortium of Deme Offshore and Eiffage Métal secured the engineering, procurement, construction and installation contract for 80 foundations for the French wind farm. The contract also includes design, fabrication, transportation and installation of the steel foundations.
DEME Offshore general manager Bart De Poorter said: “Installing drilled XL-monopiles is a new step forward in the offshore wind industry. With this innovative solution, developed in partnership with Herrenknecht, we ensure that the installation is performed safely and efficiently in challenging marine conditions.”
The French offshore wind farm will be powered by 80 turbines
The wind farm will be powered by 80 wind turbines each with 6MW of generating capacity. EDF stated that the wind farm will generate enough clean electricity to power 20% of the electricity consumption of the Loire-Atlantique.
The Saint-Nazaire offshore wind farm is also claimed to be the first in the world to use drilled XL-monopile foundations. The XL-monopile foundations are to be installed on difficult rocky seabed.
DEME Offshore and Herrenknecht, a player in tunnel boring machines, are fabricating a new tailormade subsea drill specifically for the wind farm. The new subsea drill will be deployed from Deme Offshore’s installation vehicle ‘Innovation’.
Herrenknecht board of management member Ulrich Schaffhauser said: “The Offshore Foundation Drilling (OFD) enables mechanised installation of monopiles, thus providing ecological and economic advantages compared to conventional methods.
“We are proud, that DEME relies on Herrenknecht’s solution, expertise and know-how in the field of excavation technology. The project teams of DEME and Herrenknecht cooperated very well, now we all are looking forward to project realisation.”