80 turbines installed at first French offshore wind farm

The Vole au vent was used to complete the installation of the turbines, each 6MW, bringing the total generating capacity 7of the wind farm to 480MW.

The electricity generated, says Jan de Nul, will make up 20% of the Loire-Atlantique’s annual consumption.

The turbines were loaded onto the Vole au vent in sets of four at the port of Saint-Nazaire, then transported the 12 miles to the northern part of the Bay of Biscay for installation.

It wasn’t just a case of sticking the monopiles in the seabed, however; because the seabed in the area is rocky and uneven, rock fragmenting operations had to be carried out first to give the jack-up barge a stable base from which to operate.

This was carried out by the company’s Cutter Section Dredger, Fernão de Magalhães, which fragmented the seabed with her rotating cutter head to smooth the ground.

The dredger is 138.5 metres long, with an installed power of 23,520kW.

France is on an energy drive, with plans to build 50 other wind farms of comparable size by 2050.

He also announced plans earlier this year to build another six nuclear reactors.