DEME’s cable laying vessel Living Stone has departed Greece carrying the export cables for the 487MW SeaMade offshore wind farm in the Belgian North Sea.
Living Stone loaded the export cables with a combined length of around 28 kilometres at Hellenic Cables’ facility in Soussaki. The vessel is currently en route to Vlissingen, the Netherlands.
SeaMade comprises the 252MW Seastar and the 235MW Mermaid offshore wind projects which will feature 58 Siemens Gamesa 8.0-167 DD turbines installed some 40-50 kilometres off the coast of Ostend. It will be Belgium’s largest offshore wind farm once commissioned in 2020.
SeaMade will have two offshore substations, which will collect the electricity produced by the wind turbines, convert it from 33kV to 220kV, and export it into the grid via Elia’s Modular Offshore Grid .
The wind farm will be connected to the Modular Offshore Grid through the two 220 kV submarine high voltage export cables.
In a consortium with Hellenic Cables, Tideway, part of DEME Offshore, is responsible for the export cable design, manufacturing and installation operations, and for connecting the wind farm’s high voltage substations to the Modular Offshore Grid.
Seamade NV, a joint venture between Otary (70%), Electrabel (17.5%), and Eneco Wind Belgium SA (12.5%), is the project developer.