Heerema Marine Contractors has started the installation of the gravity base structure foundations at the Fécamp offshore wind project in Normandy, France. The project has made a step forward as the the offshore transportation, installation, and commissioning have begun.

The gravity foundations are transported three-by-three by tugs to their final location at sea, using a fleet of three cargo barges belonging to Saipem. They will rotate between the Bougainville Quay of the Ville du Havre to the coast of the Ville de Fécamp. They are operated by Bouygues Travaux Publics, Boskalis, Saipem, and its subcontractor Sarens, and these manoeuvres will take several weeks.

Heerema Marine Contractors’ Sleipnir, one of the most powerful crane vessels in the world, is installing the gravity base structure foundations on behalf of its client Saipem. Heerema lowering the structures onto the seabed that Boskalis prepared. Each GBS has an overall weight of 5,000 metric tons.

Saipem, Bouygues Travaux Publics and Boskalis together have won a contract to design, build and install 71 concrete Gravity-Based Structures (GBS) as foundation for the Fécamp offshore wind farm in April 2020. The contract was awarded by Eoliennes Offshore des Hautes Falaises (EOHF) and has a total value of €552 million.

The foundations are being constructed in the Bougainville maritime works yard in the Grand Port Maritime of Le Havre and will be transported by barge to the offshore wind farm site. The works are scheduled for completion by the end of 2022. The commissioning and operational start-up of the wind farm are planned for 2023.

With a total power output of some 500 MW, the Fécamp offshore wind farm should produce the equivalent of the domestic electricity consumption of approximately 770,000 people, representing more than 60 percent of the inhabitants of the Seine-Maritime department.