Largest Belgian offshore wind farm Norther begins installing 44 wind turbines on the North Sea

Friday, February 1, 2019 — Ostend/Flushing. The first of Norther’s 44 wind turbines will soon be emerging from the waves. From the port of Flushing in the Netherlands, the impressive wind turbines are transported to be mounted onto the foundations which have already been installed. That way, Belgium’s largest offshore wind farm will soon be coming to life. One by one the wind turbines will be connected to the Belgian power grid and in the summer of 2019, Norther will be able to provide power to nearly 400,000 families annually.

In a nutshell:

  • Today, installation of Norther’s 44 wind turbines begins
  • Norther is the largest individual Belgian offshore wind farm now under construction
  • Norther will provide electricity to nearly 400,000 families annually

This marks the start of the final and most crucial construction phase. Norther began the required preparatory work in early 2018. In August 2018, the first part of the actual installation of the offshore wind farm started with the installation of the first foundations (both the “monopile” and the “transition piece”). At the same time, the foundation for the Offshore High Voltage Station (OVHS) was installed followed by the installation of cables.

Today, Norther is embarking on the final step of the works: the installation and completion of 44 wind turbines. The wind turbine components have been readied on-site at MHI Vestas Offshore Wind’s pre-assembly facility in Flushing. MHI Vestas Offshore Wind is the partner supplying 44 V164-8.4 MWwind turbines.. Van Oord’s installation vessel Aeolus will transport these out to sea to be installed, four at a time.

Dennis Sanou, Norther project director: “This is quite an important phase. The wind farm is now being prepared for completion. The electricity produced by this new generation of wind turbines will contribute significantly to Belgium’s climate objectives. The efforts of its shareholders Elicio, Eneco, and DGE constitute an important contribution to the energy transition.”

About Norther :

Norther NV is an offshore wind farm company ((50% Boreas (a JV between Eneco & Diamond Generating Europe) – 50% Nethys) with an anticipated capacity of 369.6 MW that will be built in the Belgian North Sea – 22km of the coast of Zeebrugge. Norther NV is responsible for the development, construction and operations of the offshore windfarm Norther. The offshore windpark is one of the biggest in Belgium. Total investment cost of the project is estimated at 1.3 billion euro. Norther NV will reach its financial close in October 2016 and will start building beginning of 2019.