Eiffage to Make Transition Pieces for Yeu-Noirmoutier Offshore Wind Project

Eiffage, through Eiffage Métal and its Belgian subsidiary Smulders, has secured the contract from Éoliennes en Mer Îles d’Yeu et de Noirmoutier, a consortium that includes Ocean Winds (an ENGIE and EDP Renováveis joint venture), Sumitomo Corporation, La Banque des Territoires and Vendée Energie, to manufacture the 62 transition pieces for the future offshore wind farm near the Yeu and Noirmoutier islands.

Each transition piece will measure 29.5 metres in height and 6 metres in diameter. Including the secondary steel structures, they will each weigh over 360 tonnes.

The secondary steel elements will be manufactured at the Smulders factory in Poland before being transported to Belgium, where the transition pieces will be assembled at its Hoboken site. Production will begin in spring 2023 for a staged release from the factory between early and mid-2024.

The Yeu and Noirmoutier islands offshore wind farm will have a total capacity of 496 MW and produce an average 1,900 GWh yearly to supply almost 800,000 people with sustainable electricity, more than the current population of the Vendée department. Commissioning is scheduled for 2025.

This consolidates Eiffage Métal’s position as one of the world leader in offshore wind transition pieces, mainly through its subsidiary Smulders. Other contracts won in recent months include the manufacture of secondary steel structures for the 106 monopile foundations of the Gode Wind 3 and Borkum Riffgrund 3 offshore wind farms in Germany, and the production of 64 transition pieces for the future EnBW He Dreiht offshore wind farm, also located off the German coast.