PRESS RELEASE – Ailes Marines has selected the Dutch marine contractor Van Oord to transport and install the 62 jacket foundations and the foundation piles for the offshore substation for the Saint-Brieuc Offshore Wind Farm in France. 

Van Oord will start the offshore operations in 2021 with the installation of the pin piles using its offshore installation vessel Aeolus. The Aeolus will be assisted by a second vessel in 2022 to install jackets foundations that will be manufactured in Fene in Spain and Brest in France.

Van Oord has been awarded an Early Works Contract as per December 2019 in order to expedite the design and engineering. Construction on the subsea drilling template has already started and is scheduled to be delivered Q4 2020. The Saint-Brieuc project will be Van Oord’s first offshore wind project in France.

The Saint-Brieuc Offshore Wind Farm is being constructed in the Bay of Saint-Brieuc in Brittany, 16.3 kilometres off the French coast. When finished, the wind farm with a total capacity of 496 MW will produce 1,820 GWh annually, equivalent to the annual electricity consumption of 835,000 inhabitants. The installation works will last several months and will continue until 2022. The wind farm will be fully commissioned in 2023.

Ailes Marines, a subsidiary of Iberdrola, is in charge of the development, construction, installation and operation of the offshore wind farm, which will feature 62 8MW Siemens-Gamesa turbines.