GE has completed the installation of the first offshore wind turbine in French seas, at the Saint-Nazaire offshore wind farm. 79 other Haliade 150-6MW are due to be installed and commissioned by the end of 2022.This project, led by EDF Renewables and their partners Enbrige and CPP, is the first commercial offshore wind farm in France. The nacelles of the 80 Haliade 150-6MW turbines have been assembled in GE's Saint-Nazaire manufacturing facility and the 73m blades were manufactured by LM Wind Power.
Installation will be done by Jan De Nul’s offshore jack-up installation vessel Vole au vent. In total, she will transport and install 80 units of 6 MW Wind Turbine Generators (WTG) for the construction of the wind farm. In sets of four, the turbines will be loaded on board of the Vole au vent and transported 12 km offshore, where the 1,500-tonnes main crane of the vessel will mount them on top of monopile foundations. The installation of one turbine takes approximately 24 hours, depending on the weather conditions, so each installation trip will take about 5 days.