The first of the two offshore substation topsides to be installed on the SeaMade wind farm in the Belgian North Sea has been loaded onto a barge at ENGIE Fabricom’s yard in Hoboken, Belgium.
The 487MW SeaMade is a combination of two offshore wind projects previously known as Mermaid and Seastar.
The 1,200-tonne topside will now be heading to the Mermaid concession for installation.
The two offshore substations will collect the electricity produced by the wind farm’s 58 Siemens Gamesa 8.4MW wind turbines, convert it from 33kV to 220kV, and export it into the grid via Elia’s Modular Offshore Grid .
The consortium of DEME Offshore, ENGIE, and Smulders is responsible for the full engineering, procurement, construction, transport, installation, and commissioning of the wind farm’s two offshore high voltage substations.
Seamade NV, a joint venture between Otary (70%), Electrabel (17.5%), and Eneco Wind Belgium SA (12.5 %), is the owner and developer of the wind farm. The full commissioning of the wind farm is expected by the end of 2020.