Largest wind farm in the Belgian North Sea inaugurated

The Belgian Prime Minister Elio di Rupo has officially inaugurated the Thornton Bank offshore wind farm and with a capacity of 325 megawatts (MW), the wind farm is one of the largest offshore wind farms in Europe and the largest in the Belgian North Sea. and will provide green electricity to 300,000 households each year.

It will provide green electricity to 300,000 households each year and will contribute approximately 7 per cent of Belgium’s targeted renewable energy commitment by 2020.

The farm will also help to avoid CO₂ emissions of approximately 415,000 tonnes per year compared to a traditional gas-fueled power plant.

Eight European banks, including the European Investment Bank, have provided around €900 million in financing and venture capital and the total investment amounts to approx. € 1.3 billion.

It has taken nearly ten years to complete the wind farm, from the award of the first permits and concessions and the search for financial investors through to the development of technical solutions and actual construction.

The 54 wind turbines of the Thornton Bank wind farm are situated approximately 30 kilometers off the coast of Belgium in waters up to 30 meters deep.

The Thornton Bank was successfully connected to the Belgian grid via a subsea transmission link that was constructed by ABB as part of an expansion of the Thornton Bank wind farm. The transformer station platform collecting and transmitting the power to the coast of Belgium is placed 30 kilometers offshore in the North Sea.

The wind turbines are connected via underwater medium-voltage cables to the offshore transformer station where the voltage is boosted to 150 kilovolts (kV) and connected to the mainland grid. The electricity is then fed into the grid at the Slijkens high-voltage substation located at Bredene, about 3 km inland.