The ship causing the pollution will soon be back on the wind farm



It was almost a month ago. On June 14, surface pollution was observed on the construction site of the offshore wind farm in the bay of Saint-Brieuc (Côtes d’Armor). Already criticized in particular by local fishermen, the vast site had to be stopped, the time for the Aeolus to leave the area and return to its home port for a battery of checks. On Monday, the company Van Oord responsible for carrying out the drilling for the installation of the foundation piles for the wind farm announced that its ship “will soon be back on the site at sea”.

In its press release, the company specifies that “technical and environmental optimizations of the tools and equipment of the ship have been carried out” since the pollution at sea. Sea tests were carried out at the beginning of July to ensure the good behavior of the ship. According to the company Ailes Marines, which oversees the project, around one hundred liters of hydraulic oil had escaped. This a priori biodegradable liquid had generated an iridescence on the surface visible from the air. “An incident” which had quickly dissipated at sea but had discredited an already very controversial project.

The drilling site has not yet resumed. It will be up to the State to determine when the Aeolus ship will be able to return to the area, in the light of “the analyzes and measures adopted since the incident”. Defended by the government and the Minister for Energy Transition, the Saint-Brieuc offshore wind farm will consist of 62 wind turbines and will have a total capacity of 496 MW, the equivalent of the annual electricity consumption of 835,000 inhabitants. It is due to be put into service in 2023. At the end of June, a protest action carried out by local fishermen had given rise to several arrests.



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