The site thus began with the launching by RTE of a sheath, which will house and protect part of the submarine electric cable linking the wind farm to the terrestrial network, indicated a spokesperson for the network manager to the AFP. This makes it possible to avoid works on the square, located in a protected area, since the connection will be made on the coast, within a “junction chamber” buried a few meters from the square.
“The electric cable will be installed inside this sleeve in a second time”, specifies RTE, during the second half of 2023. On land, a first project was launched in February. Objective: drill a hole for the installation of the sheath.
Further, more wind, deeper
Unlike offshore wind turbines, floating ones can be installed in deep areas, benefiting from more wind and further from the coast. Three pilot farms are to be built, with a capacity of between 25 and 30MW: in addition to that of Leucate, which is scheduled to be commissioned at the end of 2023-early 2024, another will be built off Port-la-Nouvelle (Aude) , the last in the Gulf of Fos (Bouches-du-Rhône). Their objective: to carry out research on the consequences on marine fauna and flora of the installation of commercial floating wind turbines.
If France has fallen behind on the landing, the first park having entered into service only in November 2022, it hopes to catch up on this technology and see the projects succeed more quickly. Without waiting for the results of the experimental parks, the Government announced in March 2022 the construction of two commercial fields of floating wind turbines in the Mediterranean of at least 250MW each. With the possibility of extension to reach up to 750MW.