Rentel BV has announced that the export cable from the 309MW Belgian offshore wind farm has made a landfall in Zeebrugge.
The cable, with a length of 40 kilometers, has been placed within a dredged trench on the seabed by a cable laying vessel, which brought it through the shallow waters 6 kilometres off the coast and brought the cable ashore in Zeebrugge.
Dredgers are filling the trench, burying the cable in the seabed. As from 1 kilometre off the coast, a mechanical trenching machine on caterpillars are carrying out these works.
The installation of the last 450 meters of cable on land is being done by means of mobile cranes.
With the landfall of this export cable, Rentel will be the first wind farm connected to the new high voltage station Stevin in Zeebruges.
The Rentel offshore wind farm will comprise 42 Siemens D7 type wind turbines, each with an individual installed capacity of 7.35MW.
The first power is scheduled to be delivered to the Belgian grid by mid-2018, with the entire wind farm planned to become fully operational by the end of 2018.