“The Saint-Brieuc wind farm is neither done nor needs to be redone”. This is the small bomb dropped by the Secretary of State for the Sea Hervé Berville on September 22 during the Assises de la mer in La Rochelle. Since the start of work at sea in May 2021, the project has indeed had a series of difficulties and still arouses a good deal of criticism in the Breton peninsula.
Despite headwinds, the project is progressing at its own pace according to Ailes Marines, a subsidiary of the Spanish giant Iberdola, which won the call for tenders in 2012. “This offshore wind farm is no longer a project but it is becoming a reality “, underlined this Tuesday Stéphane Alain Riou, development and territory director of Ailes Marines, on the occasion of the signing of a financial partnership with the Brittany region.
Winter maintenance for the drilling vessel
In accordance with the planned schedule, this 62 wind farm in the bay of Saint-Brieuc (Côtes-d’Armor) should be commissioned at the end of 2023. With an installed capacity of 496 Megawatts, it will be able to produce the equivalent of the annual electricity consumption of 835,000 inhabitants. For now, about forty positions have been drilled and fitted with piles and 24 foundations have been laid. At the start of the summer, the electrical substation for the wind farm had also been installed. Work will now continue in the coming weeks to install the submarine cables that will transmit the electricity produced to the land network.
Responsible for carrying out the drilling on the shipyard, the ship Aeolus has meanwhile left the area in recent hours. It will go to the Netherlands for a winter maintenance operation which will last several weeks. “He will be back in February when activities will resume fully on the site,” says Stéphane Alain Riou.