Spanish electricity company Iberdrola has awarded contracts for the construction of an offshore substation in the English Channel.
A joint venture of Eiffage Métal and Engie Solutions will build the offshore substation for Iberdrola’s Saint Brieuc offshore wind project.
The 496MW Saint Brieuc is Iberdrola’s first large-scale project, built with an investment of $2.83bn (€2.4bn).
Once installed, the offshore substation will collect and export all the energy generated for Iberdrola by the 62 wind turbines.
The wind farm will generate around 1.82TWh annually, enough to power 835,000 people while offsetting 100,000t carbon emissions per year.
The joint venture firm will take responsibility for all the structural elements of the substation but not its electrical equipment.
Eiffage Métal will provide the engineering and construction services for the substation and its transformers and electrical equipment. Engie Solutions will carry out the final assembly and commissioning.
The substation features a jacket foundation with a height of 63m, weighing 1,630t. The topside of the foundation will be 55m long, 31m wide and 23m high, weighing nearly 3,400t.
Substation fabrication works will begin in early 2022. These will be carried out in the yards operated by Eiffage in Belgium and Poland.
Shipyards operated by Engie Solutions in Belgium will execute the final assembly works.
In June this year, Iberdrola started operations of its CAVAR wind power complex in Navarra, Spain.
The CAVAR wind power complex consists of 111MW installed capacity across four farms in the Navarre municipalities of Cadreita and Valtierra.
The wind farms took one year to build and use 32 SG 3.4-132 wind turbines.
