40% of the offshore wind platforms and 65% of the piles needed to support the wind turbines have been installed by the company. The Saint-Brieuc offshore wind farm development project by Iberdrola is going according to schedule in the waters off Brittany, France. With the installation of 40% of the offshore wind platforms and 65% of the piles, the business has finished the first campaign of construction. These components were produced at the factories of Navantia in Fene and Windar in Avilés, respectively. A total of 124 piles have already been erected, which will serve as the substation’s and 40 of the wind farm’s 62 turbines’ seabed anchors. These steel cylinders are from 18 to 47 meters long, 2.6 meters in diameter, and weigh 150 tons each. They have each of the three-legged platforms that will hold the turbines millimeter-perfectly placed onto them.
The installation of 24 of these platforms—roughly 40% of the total planned—was also finished during the first phase, which just ended. These foundations with triangular bases may reach heights of 75 meters, have a width of 25 meters, and weigh 1,150 tons. They are going to be built in three phases. The first involves using a crane to raise the structure from a shipping barge and set it down on the desired location. The second stage involves inserting the three frame legs into the piles that have already been secured to the ocean floor in preparation for sealing the legs’ lower portions. The platforms’ minimal environmental impact is due to its lattice construction, which also helps to promote biodiversity and water mass circulation, which in turn helps to create the artificial reef effect.
Depending on the weather, the project will continue in January with the installation of cabling between wind turbines. The connecting cable for the wind farm is supposed to be installed starting in the middle of January 2023. High-voltage alternating current connecting cables rated at 66 kV will be put into service over a distance of 90 kilometers. In the first quarter, drilling and pile installation activities will resume after the remaining 66 piles have been anchored. Thus, the offshore wind platforms will be reinstalled and wind turbine assembly will start in the second half of the year. The cooperation between Navantia and Windar has now completed its largest offshore wind power order, a 350 million euro deal for the development of Saint-Brieuc. In Avilés and Fene, this project directly created 1,250 jobs.
In addition, Navantia-Windar constructed a facility in Brest, France, where 250 employment will be created. This facility will produce the 186 stabbings and intermediate platforms of the transition components as well as the lattice structure for 34 of the 62 structures of the wind farm. Thanks to the contracts given out by Iberdrola, Navantia has established itself as a world leader in the construction of offshore wind power components and the nation’s top provider of these kinds of buildings, with one of Europe’s highest growth potentials. Iberdrola has already given Navantia-Windar contracts totaling more than 1 billion euros, including the award of the transitional components for the Vineyard Wind 1 offshore wind farm in the United States and the Baltic Eagle offshore wind farm in Germany, in addition to the orders already fulfilled for Wikinger in the Baltic Sea and East Anglia One in the United Kingdom.
This partnership is an illustration of Iberdrola’s dedication to forging partnerships with suppliers as a chance to build a value chain in the nation and establish Spanish business as a global leader in green initiatives. The Saint-Brieuc wind farm, the company’s fourth using this technology, will be the first sizable offshore wind farm in France for the Iberdrola group. Once it is operational in 2023, it will have a capacity of roughly 500 MW and produce enough clean energy to supply 835,000 people’s electricity needs. It will be situated about 16 kilometers inland and span a 75-kilometer area. An estimated 2,500 million euros were spent total on its construction. Iberdrola’s dedication to the French market is demonstrated by this new facility, where the company aims to invest almost 4 billion euros by 2025, primarily in renewable energy projects. Following West of Duddon Sands in the Irish Sea, Wikinger in the Baltic Sea, and East Anglia ONE, one of the largest offshore wind installations in the world, in the southern North Sea, the facility will become the company’s fourth operational offshore wind farm. One factor in the expansion of Iberdrola is offshore wind energy. The organization is driving the advancement of offshore wind, much as it did when onshore wind power was first developed twenty years ago. The company has a sizable portfolio of projects in Germany, Japan, Sweden, Ireland, Poland, Taiwan, the Philippines, the United States, and the United Kingdom, with a focus on nations with aggressive renewable energy targets.
