PRESS RELEASE – DEME has completed the installation of 58 monopile foundations and two offshore substation foundations at the SeaMade offshore wind farm in the Belgian North Sea. The last monopile foundation landed on the seabed on January 2. With a 487 MW capacity, SeaMade is the largest offshore wind farm in Belgium.

Installation works kicked off in September 2019 with DEME’s offshore installation vessel Innovation. Turbine installation will start in spring 2020 with offshore installation vessel Apollo and with the port of Ostend as the load-out port for the Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy 8.4 MW turbines. DEME will also install all inter-array cables with cable lay vessel Living Stone after having installed the export cable.

During foundation installation, a new monopile gripper, mounted on the MV Innovation has been deployed. This new pile gripper excels in safety, versatility and piling accuracy, enabling the vessel to install monopile foundations all year round, DEME states.

“This is a major milestone in the construction of Belgium’s largest wind farm. SeaMade is a significant step in the country’s energy transition”, says Bart De Poorter, General Manager DEME Offshore.

Before the end of 2020, SeaMade will provide renewable energy to 485,000 households in Belgium.