First wind farm for Siemens in Belgium

Situation
The earlier industrial appearance on the Left Bank of the port of Antwerp has been given a distinctive green touch. The NV ‘Wind aan de Stroom’ (NV W@S), project developer for wind energy on the public domain of the left bank of the Scheldt, has commissioned Siemens Belgium for the supply and construction of wind turbines in this first phase. Right away, this became the first wind energy project for Siemens in Belgium. Sweco has received the full confidence of Siemens and future client NV W@S for all the necessary civil engineering studies for the realization of the wind farm.

The project extends over an area of several square kilometres of harbour area with 14 sites on it with different historical backgrounds (including reclaimed land and the nearby docks). Therefore, using extensive geotechnical soil investigation, the geology and bearing force of the subsurface was first identified and listed. For example, an optimal foundation design has been developed per site.

Crane set-up positions
In addition the crane set-up positions also received considerable engineering attention. One of the challenges of the project is the installation of turbines on sites with limited space due to the high density of the industrial and port activities. Using giant cranes, the hub (the central component of the windmill), with a weight of 78 tons, was positioned on to a 115 metre high turbine mast. For such crane activities, the stability of the working platform is of the utmost importance. Secondly, there was the challenge for this crane set-up position to take up as little as possible industrial space, both during the construction work and the final erection.

Execution
Companies constructing the turbines include Borealis, Indaver, Antwerp Gateway, Tabaknatie, Luiknatie, Norbert Dentressangle, Euroports, Global Container Services, Sea Port Terminals and Transport Van Loon.

Sweco's strength of expertise in the design and realization of wind farms, in conjunction with a local presence at various industrial companies in the port area, provides a lot of confidence in Siemens to act as a technical partner in this ambitious project.

Now that the detailed engineering has been completed and the civil engineering works have been assigned to a contractor, Sweco has also taken on the daily monitoring of the work. The foundation work was carried out in 2014 and the first turbines were operational in 2015. The first phase of the wind farm is good for about 100 Gigawatt hours per year. Thus green electricity for about 30,000 households or multiple local businesses. The entire wind farm will have been completed by 2020.

Photo: © Siemens