The 80 wind turbines, located a few dozen kilometers from the coast, are now all connected to the national grid.
After the largest floating wind farm in the world, it is the turn of another wind farm at sea to be operational: that of Saint-Nazaire. This is neither floating nor the largest, but the first park of this type in France. EDF announced its full commissioning in the middle of the week. The park includes 80 wind turbines, located between 12 and 20 km from the coast, for a capacity of 480 MW. According to the company, this offshore wind farm can produce, under the right conditions, around 20% of the annual electricity consumption of Loire-Atlantique, or the equivalent of the annual consumption of 700,000 people.
First megawatt-hours produced since June
While some wind turbines in the park had been producing megawatt hours since last June, the site was not fully operational: the 80 wind turbines were not all connected to the national electricity transmission network. The inauguration took place on Wednesday 23 November, in the presence of the various stakeholders (local authorities, State, companies, associations, etc.).
To fully understand how this park works, you can watch the video “ How the Saint-Nazaire wind farm works ? » produced by France 3 Pays de la Loire a few weeks ago and available on YouTube.
Fishermen and wind turbines
Construction of the Saint-Nazaire offshore wind farm began in 2019, but the project took about ten years to materialize. The first debate on this installation was held in the summer of 2013 and led to a public inquiry in 2015. Since then, the project has led to 1,500 working sessions with local stakeholders and 300 meetings of information.
If the installation of onshore wind farms often arouses opposition from local residents, necessarily, at sea, the first concerned and possible opponents are rather fishermen and environmental defenders.
Regarding the former, according to EDF, ” the park has been designed to reduce the constraints imposed on fishing during the construction phase as much as possible and to allow fishing within it during the entire operating phase “.
As for the latter, the company alleges that ” constructive exchanges ” with environmental protection associations, such as the League for the Protection of Birds, France Nature Environnement or Bretagne Vivante, ” allowed the project teams to acquire the knowledge necessary for the design of the park, while respecting its environment and its biodiversity “. Fauna and flora have thus been monitored during the various construction phases and will continue to be scrutinized throughout the duration of the park’s operation.
A hundred people (operating managers, maintenance and logistics technicians, quality inspectors, among others) will now guarantee the operation and maintenance of this offshore wind farm in Saint-Nazaire, for the 25 years to come. come. The maintenance base is located in the town of La Turballe.
Source : EDF
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