Damen Shiprepair & Conversion (DSC) has been working on Vole au vent, Jan De Nul’s 140m jack-up vessel purpose built for the installation of new generation offshore wind turbines, as the vessel has been deployed on two installation phases at the Belgian Nobelwind offshore wind farm.
The jack-up vessel Vole au vent arrived at Damen Shiprepair Vlissingen in late 2016, having spent the summer installing foundations at the Nobelwind offshore wind farm off the coast of Belgium.
The vessel came to Damen’s Vlissingen facilities for modifications necessary for the second phase of works on the Nobelwind project – the installation of wind turbines. These required the demobilisation of the existing equipment used for the foundation campaign and the installation of a new configuration for the wind turbine installation phase.
Over the course of two weeks, the vessel’s 3,400m² main deck was cleared of equipment and temporary structures and restored to its clean, completely flush layout, allowing it to accommodate wind turbine installation equipment and components.
Damen also fabricated and installed some new deck structures including grillages for the transport of the wind turbine towers and nacelles.
Jan De Nul installed the last foundation at the Nobelwind wind farm on 22 September 2016, and started the turbine installation at the wind farm, also known as Belwind 2 or Bligh Bank II, at the end of October 2016.
The first turbine at Nobelwind started producing electricity in early January and by mid-March 42 out of the total 50 MHI Vestas V112-3.3MW were installed.