[In pictures] The electrical substation, the heart of the future Saint-Nazaire offshore wind farm, has set sailThe offshore site for the Saint-Nazaire (Loire-Atlantique) wind farm is progressing. The substation that will receive electricity from the park's 80 Haliade wind turbines set sail on August 17 to be installed. The park will see the light of day by the end of 2022.
The electrical substation was transported to the offshore park off Saint-Nazaire on August 17, 2021.It is a titanic project which is carried out off Saint-Nazaire (Loire-Atlantique). By the end of 2022, 80 giant wind turbines will emerge from the sea to supply nearly 20% of the department's electricity. Located between 12 and 20 kilometers from the coast, these wind turbines will all converge their electricity production on the transformers of a substation which will transmit the current to the continent. On Tuesday August 17, it was this substation that set sail aboard a non-standard vessel to be installed in the heart of the future offshore wind farm.
480 MW power substation
The transformers of the substation will collect electricity from the wind turbines to increase the voltage to 225 volts before it is injected into the onshore network via the RTE substation in Prinquiau. Built by Chantiers de l'Atlantique for EDF Renouvelable, the substation will be based on a “jacket”, a giant platform that was installed a few days earlier on August 000 on the barge Stralsund. On this occasion, a special vessel was assigned for the installation, the Pionnering Spirit. This mastodon of nearly 14 meters from the Swiss-Dutch shipowner Allseas is equipped with two giant cranes to carry out the installation.
The substation will generate 480 Megawatts of electricity, grabbing first place in the world from the Arkona electric substation with a power of 385 Megawatts. Built by Chantiers de l'Atlantique in 2018, Arkona is now located in the German Baltic Sea, where it supplies 400 homes.
The jacket transported to the offshore park on August 14, 2021. Credit: Bruno Bouvry - Imagine Air.80 General Electric Haliade wind turbines
General Electric's famous giant wind turbines, Haliade (150-6MW), will make up the Saint-Nazaire offshore park. Their production mobilizes 500 people from GE Renewable Energy in the nacelle assembly plant in Montoir-de-Bretagne (Loire-Atlantique) and 200 other people in the Nantes GE office for engineering, sourcing, and other services. The wind turbines will be installed in the spring of 2022 while the inter-turbine cables have already been buried.
The wind farm belongs to the Pays de la Loire region and will enter a 25-year operation and maintenance phase from its commissioning. The wind turbines will be maintained by EDF Renewables, Enbridge and GE Renewable Energy.