Highlight of the worksite: “we have developed a lightweight, self-compacting type of concrete to minimise the weight of the structure and pour the concrete without vibrating it,” explains Régis Bigard, head of the Floatgen project with Bouygues Travaux Publics.
The final unit will top out at over 80 metres.īy mid-October, it will be towed to the SEM-REV installation site, 22 km off the coast of Le Croisic for initial trials covering a period of 2 years. The project’s next stage will be to mount the wind turbine’s tower, the turbine and its blades. The imposing, 5,000-tonne concrete structure, 36 metres square by 9.5 metres high, will soon be accommodating a 2-MW wind turbine.
When the lock was filled with water, the floater disengaged from its support”, explains Perceval Modiano, project manager at Bouygues Travaux Publics. The barges were then filled with water to be sunk. “Everything was placed in dry dock on concrete and wooden blocks which support the keel of a ship during dry construction. The concrete foundation was tugged into the Forme Joubert Lock, a dry dock at the entrance to the port of Saint-Nazaire to be floated, a tricky technical operation to float off the floater from the three barges on which it had been built. After installing the wind turbine’s mooring system off the coast of Le Croisic last July, the foundation took to the water, marking a new key stage in the project implemented by Ideol, the Ecole Centrale de Nantes and Bouygues Travaux Publics.