Belgium Set to Commission 215-Megawatt Northwind Offshore Windfarm

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources India (Delhi, India)--Belgium's leading offshore windfarm developer Northwind NV (Leuven, Belgium) is set to commission its 215-megawatt (MW) offshore wind power plant in the North Belgium Sea. Located 37-kilometer off the Zonder Naam port, Northwind is the third largest offshore wind energy facility in the country.

Due to be built with an investment of €900 million, Northwind Offshore windfarm is expected to start supply of electricity to the national grid by June 2014. Northwind energy initiated the project in 2008 and achieved financial closure in 2012. Northwind ordered 72 wind turbine generator (WTG) sets to Danish wind turbine manufacturer, Vestas Wind Systems (OTC: VWDRY) (Aarhus, Denmark).

As per the terms of the agreement, Vestas has supplied 72 "V-112" wind turbines of 3 MW each for the windfarm a with 15-year's Long Term Service Agreement (LTSA).

Once completed, the wind power stations will produce nearly 875 gigawatt-hours (GWh) of electricity per year, which could supply electricity to more than 250,000 households in the region.

Belgian-firm GeoSea NV (Zwijndrecht, Belgium) constructed the foundation structure for Northwind and established inter-array of cables and also provided the technology for installation of turbines. Installation of the first offshore WTG for the plant started in July 2013.

Northwind is the joint-venture between Aspiravi NV (Harelbeke, Belgium) and Colruyt Group (EBR: COLR) (Halle, Belgium). Aspiravi has a total 466 MW of installed generation capacity from its onshore windfarms located in Belgium and increasing its share into offshore facilities. Colruyt Group operates in the retail supermarket sector in Belgium, France and Luxembourg.

Founded in 1898, Vestas manufactures wide range of WTGs between 2 MW to 3.3 MW. Vestas installed nearly 30% of the world's offshore wind turbines. Vestas Offshore provides services for all offshore project management from supply to full-scale Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC). Vestas is presently developing its biggest wind turbine 'WTG V-164' with a rated capacity of 8 MW.

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