Navantia and Windar renovables joint venture has secured a contract to manufacture 62 jacket foundations for the 496MW Saint-Brieuc offshore wind farm in France.
The joint venture was selected by Ailes Marines, the developer of the wind project and a joint venture between the companies Iberdrola, RES, and Caisse des Dépôts.
To be located 16km off the French coast, the wind farm will be spread across an area of about 78km². The wind farm is expected to be operational by 2022.
The Saint-Brieuc wind farm will be built at a cost of £2.22bn
With its 496MW of capacity, the wind farm will generate enough clean electricity to be supplied to 835,000 people. Being built with a total investment of €2.5bn (£2.22bn), the wind farm will include 62 Siemens Gamesa’s 8MW turbines.
The tip of each of the wind turbines is expected to reach a height of 207m. The turbines will be equipped with Siemens Gamesa’s ‘direct drive’ technology and each of the blades will be 82m in length, delivering a swept area that is 18% larger than the previous model with 20% higher annual power production compared to its predecessor.
The turbines at the wind farm will be mounted on three-legged jacket foundations designed by Atkins. The foundations manufacturing contract is expected to be signed next February and the production could begin next summer.
The whole assembly will take place in the Navantia shipyard in Fene, Spain. The contract also includes a part of local content, which will be carried out in Brest, such as stabbings, lower nodes and the lattice structure for 34 jackets. The integration of all subsets will be done completely in Fene.
The foundation components will be assembled by Navantia in Brest in a dedicated area, located at the north of the site. Before foundations are shipped to the site, the port of Brest will be used a temporary storage.
