
Image credit: Van Oord
Dutch company Van Oord has been awarded the contract for building the Belwind offshore wind farm. It will be constructed on the Blight Bank, about 46 km off the coast of Zeebrugge, Belgium. Belwind nv, the client who commissioned the development of the wind farm, is partially owned by Dutch and Belgian companies. The wind farm contract is worth EUR 280 million, and is the Van Oord's largest contract this year so far. Project development has begun, with completion scheduled for November 2010.
The Belwind wind farm will have 55 wind turbines, totalling in about 165 MW, and once operational it will supply an estimated 165,000 families with clean electricity.
Activities that will be happening during project development include the construction of the foundations for the 55 wind turbines, subsea cable laying, construction of the offshore high voltage station, and finally the assembly of wind turbine on the foundations.