1/ Five days per wind turbine
Despite the slowness of the realization of the project to increase the renewable energy production devices, EDF and the director of marine renewable energies France Cédric Le Bousse are delighted with the arrival of this first mast and hope to see the whole fleet. installed before the end of the year. In series of four, the wind turbines will be installed in 24 hours for a total journey of 5 days between the port of Saint-Nazaire, the offshore park and the return to the coast.
2/ 700,000 inhabitants
Under water, the foundations planned for 60 wind turbines have already been installed and a site manager specified that the assembly had already been equipped with 22 inter-network cables. According to EDF officials, the park off Saint-Nazaire will supply electricity to the equivalent of 700,000 inhabitants. In a note published by AFP, they said that this represented half of the consumption of Loire-Atlantique.
3/ Two to three times more powerful
Wind turbines, with a power of 6 megawatts, have a considerable advantage over installations on land with a power two to three times higher. Positioned 180 meters high on their monopile foundation, they are located in an area where the winds are not lacking. In all, the entire wind farm should satisfy a power of 480 megawatts.
What a sight! Our very first #Haliad is now standing tall off the coast of #Saint Nazaire in #France. More updates to come as we continue the installation.#FutureofEnergy pic.twitter.com/0RutJpe7hT
— GE Renewable Energy (@GErenewables) April 13, 2022
4/ Consortium
EDF is not the only player working on the site. The Saint-Nazaire offshore wind farm is owned by EMF (Eolien Maritime France), one of its subsidiaries, but the company’s investee came from both EDF Renewables and the Canadian company Enbridge with the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board. In all, the Saint-Nazaire site is estimated at an investment of 285 million euros.
5/ Six other parks in France
By 2028, Saint-Nazaire will be joined by other offshore wind farms. The French seas will host six other shipyards. The first to open will be Fécamp (Seine-Maritime) scheduled for operation in 2023, before those of Saint-Brieuc (Côtes-d’Armor) and Courseulles-sur-Mer (Calvados).
To achieve this, there are numerous negotiations with fishermen and environmental associations that do not always agree with these installation projects. The objective for the project manager at EDF Renewable is to achieve “produce 35 to 40% more carbon-free electricity compared to what we currently produce”said Cédric Le Bousse.