More than 40 UK offshore wind supply chain companies and the key Belgian offshore wind players met on 25 January in Brussels to discuss opportunities for collaborating in the framework of three future Belgian projects: Mermaid, Seastar and Northwester 2.
The businesses also looked at delivering innovative solutions for the operations and maintenance activities of the existing Belgian projects.
The supply chain event was organised by the UK Department for International Trade (DIT). British Ambassador to Belgium, Alison Rose, opened the event by emphasising the benefits of a closer collaboration between the industry in both countries in order to help reach the climate targets.
In October 2017, Belgian government reached an agreement with the developers of the three aforementioned offshore wind projects on a price of EUR 79/MWh as part of the government’s support scheme. The 224MW Northwester 2, 246MW Seastar and 246MW Mermaid will be built between 2018 and 2020 and for a much lower level of support than previous wind farms.
The operational wind farms off Belgium include C-Power (Thornton Bank), Belwind, Northwind and Nobelwind, and the country is bound to get two more in the near future with the Rentel project currently under construction and the Norther offshore wind farm in the pre-construction stage.