The two substations for the SeaMade offshore wind farm have been successfully installed in the Belgian North Sea. DEME’s heavy lift vessel Gulliver installed the substations weighing 1200 tonnes each.
This installation marks a major milestone in the construction of Belgium’s largest offshore wind farm. The substations are the beating heart of the offshore wind farm. They transform the wind energy that is produced to 225 kV, which in turn allows the electricity to be brought to shore via Elia’s Modular Offshore Grid (MOG). The export cable transmitting the electricity to shore has been installed earlier with DEME’s cable installation vessel Living Stone.
Heavy lift vessel Gulliver is operated by DEME’s subsidiary Scaldis. Earlier DEME’s offshore installation vessel Innovation installed all of the foundations, including those for the two substations.
Turbine installation
The installation of 58 turbines will begin in spring. DEME will deploy its offshore installation vessel Apollo, which recently performed the precision foundation piling operation at the Moray East offshore wind farm in Scotland. However, this will be the first turbine installation project for the Apollo. The versatile vessel has had a full order book since its inauguration in February last year.
In April cable installation vessel Living Stone will start the installation of the inter array cables.
