Pioneering the French energy transition

With the urgent need to reduce worldwide CO2 emissions comes a growing demand for renewable energy sources. Consequently, more challenging project locations are being considered. Van Oord's commitment to marine ingenuity and its unwavering dedication to leading the way in the energy transition make us a global leader in offshore wind solutions, even in the most difficult circumstances. One such daunting location for building a wind farm is along the French coast.

The Saint-Brieuc offshore wind farm, located 16.3 kilometres off the Brittany coast in the Bay of Saint-Brieuc, is a testament to overcoming tough conditions. With 62 turbines, this project stands as the first in France with jacket foundations. When fully operational, the 496MW wind farm will generate enough clean energy for 835,000 residents.

Ailes Marines, owned by Iberdrola, contracted Van Oord for the transport and installation of 62 jacket foundations for the wind turbines (3 pin piles each) and the 4 foundation pin piles for the offshore substation. Van Oord deployed its offshore installation vessel Aeolus to install the 190 pin piles and teamed up with other industry partners to install the jackets.

Obstacles often pave the way for innovation and in that regard the Bay of Saint-Brieuc presented a formidable test: the relentless Atlantic environmental conditions and the extremely hard, uneven seabed littered with rocks and gigantic boulders.

Van Oord, with its rich expertise in transporting and installing foundations under demanding circumstances, accepted the challenge. The Aeolus was upgraded and an extensive spread of project-specific installation equipment was engineered, constructed and utilised on the installation vessel. To ensure that the Aeolus could be safely jacked above sea level, the feet of the jacking system were modified with a flex-pin construction.

The execution of the Saint-Brieuc project is an example of a multidisciplinary team in action. Various disciplines within Van Oord were engaged, such as our hydrodynamics team, who conducted simulations on the influence of waves and swell on Aeolus’ operational capacity. Dredging specialists provided insights on heavy-duty cutters, enhancing our project's precision and efficiency.

Due to the extremely hard rocky seabed, an innovative drilling method was used to install the foundations. Project-specific drills were jointly engineered and constructed with our partner Bauer Spezial Tiefbau. A specifically designed drilling template, with the size of a small apartment building, functioned as a positioning tool to ensure the precise placement of the pin piles.

The Saint-Brieuc offshore wind project marked the first time that vertical drilling of such magnitude was undertaken in hard rock at these water depths. The seabed's rock strengths exceeded 100 MPa, and in total the drilling had to go through approximately 4 kilometres of rock.

"After executing a variety of projects in France, Van Oord reached a huge milestone by completing our very first highly complex offshore wind project here. Thanks to the great collaboration between our client Iberdrola, partners, and our dedicated project team, we have now finished our work on the Saint-Brieuc project. We are proud to have contributed to France's energy transition."

— Ivar Daemen, Project Director at Van Oord