Van Oord will start work this week on the last stretch of the export cable for the 369.6MW Norther offshore wind farm off the coast of Belgium.
The Dutch company, which is balance of plant contractor on the project, will deploy the Vetag 8 to install 4km of wires leading up to the beach at Zeebrugge.
Christoffers Onshore and Subsea cable trencher Nessie 2 (pictured) will take over close to the coast.
The 27-metre long and 8-metre wide device will be placed on tracks. Mobile cranes will be used to lay 450 metres of cable on the beach connecting the power line to the high-voltage Stevin substation.
The 24km export cable was provided by South Korea’s LS Cable. It has been laid using Van Oord vessel Nexus with Forland Shipping’s REM Saltire burying the cable.
Meanwhile, Van Oord has completed about 12 of the 45 monopiles and transition pieces for the project.
The foundations are being provided by SIF and Smulders and shipped aboard the offshore installation vessel Aeolus from the Dutch city of Roermond to the project site 23km off the coast.
Installation of array cables supplied by Prysmian will also start soon. Van Oord will deploy Nexus for the work.
A total of 44 V164 8MW MHI Vestas turbines will go in from February 2019.
Norther is being developed by Elicio, Eneco and Mitsubishi Corp subsidiary DGE.