A marine construction and engineering company has signed its first offshore wind contract in France.

offshore wind farm

The turbine installation works are planned to start in spring 2022. Image: Jan De Nul

Jan De Nul’s French subsidiary Sodraco International SAS will be responsible for the transportation and installation of 80 Offshore Wind Turbines on the Saint-Nazaire Offshore Wind Farm (OWF).

The contract was awarded by Parc du Banc de Guérande, a joint venture between the French renewable energy company EDF Renewables and the Canadian energy infrastructure company Enbridge.

“We are excited to contribute to the further development of renewable energy, and offshore wind in particular, in France," said Philippe Hutse, offshore director at Jan De Nul Group.

"Next to that we are looking forward to working again with EDF Renewables and to confirm our skills and competencies by making the installation of the Offshore Wind Turbines in collaboration with GE a great success."

The Saint-Nazaire OWF is located in the northern part of the Bay of Biscay at nearly 12km from the coast and lies on top of the Banc de Guérande seabed formation. The turbines will be supplied by General Electric (GE) and installed on top of monopile foundations. The OWF will have a total capacity of 480MW, which equals 20% of the Loire-Atlantique’s electricity consumption needs.

The turbine installation works are planned to start in spring 2022 and will be finalised by the end of 2022.

By Rebecca Jeffrey