Full Power at Belgium's Largest Windfarm

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Written by Martin Lynch, European News Editor for Industrial Info (Galway, Ireland) - Two months after installing the final turbine, Belgium's largest windfarm has been officially inaugurated by the country's Prime minister, Elio di Rupo.

The Thornton Bank offshore windfarm has a generating capacity of 325-megawatts (MW), enough to power approximately 600,000 homes. The windfarm is not just Belgium's first offshore windfarm but also the largest windfarm currently in operation in the country. It is also the first windfarm in the world to use turbines with a generating capacity in excess of 6 MW. In all, the windfarm will be capable of supplying approximately 7% percent of Belgium's targeted renewable energy goals by 2020, and offset the equivalent of 415,000 tons of CO2 emissions per year.

The windfarm was financed by eight European commercial banks and the European Investment Bank (EIB), which provided vital funding of €900 million ($1.28 billion) for Phases II and III of the project. For additional information, see December 2, 2010, article - Belgium's Thornton Bank Windfarm Gets 900 Million-Euro Uplift.

"At the present time, the Thornton Bank offshore wind farm is unique throughout Europe in many respects," explained Dr. Hans Bünting, CEO of RWE Innogy, the lead project developer. "Equipped with the largest offshore turbines currently available, the windfarm has been setting standards in terms of construction, network connection and operation. The implementation of the project together with partners has been trendsetting in particular. In the future, there will hardly be any companies who are able to tackle the construction of offshore wind farms on their own -- such projects are just too capital-intensive. That is why for me Thornton Bank is a successful example of the energy transition in Europe."

The windfarm took 10 years to complete, from the award of the first permits to its official opening.

In July this year REpower Systems AG (ETR:RPW) (Hamburg, Germany) completed Phase III of the project by installing the last of 48 turbines, rated at 6.15 MW each. The turbines are situated some 30 kilometers (km) off the coast of Belgium in waters up to 30 metres deep. The construction was completed in three phases, starting with the six wind turbines, rated at 5 MW each, installed on gravity-based foundations and commissioned in 2009. Thornton Bank 2 had 24 6 MW turbines installed using jacket foundations and was commissioned at the start of this year.

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