SAINT NAZAIRE, BRITTANY: OFFSHORE SUBSTATION

Saint Nazaire situated in the southernmost department of Brittany, France, a marine industrial town is home to a burgeoning offshore wind industry. As most north and west coastal areas in France towns like these are key to servicing the growing offshore renewables sector. Like St Brieuc and Cherbourg these naval and seagoing backdrops have the personnel, the experience and the harbours and ports that make it operationally conducive.

We could draw a parallel to Guernsey - with actually an even greater opportunity to be a powerhouse of Europe. Guernsey, Channel Islands has an even greater capacity of wind, tidal and wave power within its jurisdiction in comparison to the relative capacity of the coasts of France per capita, per square mile. No need for maths, just look at the map. Just 12 to 20km off of the St Nazaire coast in this western area of France a wind capacity of 480MW (0.5GW) will be installed in the next few years, commissioning expected by 2022. The wind array will consist of 80 x GE Haliade 6MW turbines.

By 2025 Guernsey could be looking at 40 x 12MW GE Haliade, the next generation. Despite the recent world-wide pandemic the contracting company Chantiers de l’Atlantique, traditionally a very large ship builder, commenced production of the substation, but it looks like the overall project, managed by EDF may be slowed temporarily.

Renew Guernsey will update this post as things develop for this really important and exciting offshore wind project. The offshore electricity substation is quite a technological beast. We are wondering if Guernsey would ever need such a device by bringing all the wind and tidal cables into L’Ancresse and creating an underground substation in the common. Otherwise could offshore substations become tourist destinations?

https://www.4coffshore.com/news/newsItem.aspx?nid=17345

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint-Nazaire

https://chantiers-atlantique.com/en/