First GE Nacelle for the Banc de Guérande Wind Farm

The first nacelle for the future offshore wind farm to be sited off Guérande has left the GE Renewable Energy plant at Montoir de Bretagne. This milestone for France’s first ever offshore wind farm was marked on 15th September, in the presence of the project’s industrial partners, and of local elected representatives and institutional players.

A symbol of energy transition, growth and employment, this piece of machinery contains a generator, an electrical control box and the means to accommodate three blades. It will be installed at a height of 100 metres, on top of the mast of a 6 MW capacity Haliade 150 wind turbine. In total, 80 nacelles will be leaving the GE Renewable Energy plant to equip the wind turbines, the offshore installation operations for which will begin in the course of 2021 prior to commissioning in 2022.

The nacelles produced by the Montoir de Bretagne plant will be stored at the new wind turbine assembly industrial facility which has been set up by Nantes ‒ Saint Nazaire Port and GE close to the Joubert sluice dock in Saint Nazaire. The machinery will be progressively installed offshore by specialist vessels as of the spring of 2022 and until the end of that same year. Ahead of that phase, the foundations of the wind turbines and their connecting submarine cables will be put in place in 2021. The electrical substation being built at the Chantiers de l’Atlantique Shipyard will for its part be installed next summer.

This massive offshore operation will be managed from a maritime coordination centre, which will be set up by the Société du Parc du Banc de Guérande Company on the Petit-Maroc site in Saint Nazaire, commencing this winter and continuing until the end of 2022.

Contact at Nantes Saint-Nazaire Port – Ludovic Bocquier