Building works have been initiated for the Princess Elisabeth Island, a project that will create the world’s first artificial energy island in the Belgian North Sea.
Following a successful sea transport operation, the first two of a total of 23 caissons - concrete building blocks that will be filled with sand to form the outline of the future island - have been submerged at their final location. The milestone was announced on Wednesday by Belgian electricity transmission operator Elia Group SA.
To be located about 45 km (30 miles) off the Belgian coast, Princess Elisabeth will bring energy from the new offshore wind farms to the Elia onshore grid and will also serve as a future connection between Belgium, the UK and Denmark by means of additional interconnectors. The energy island will collect and transmit electricity generated by the 3.5-GW Princess Elisabeth wind zone.
Installation works are carried out by Jan De Nul joint venture.
While alternating current (HVAC) contracts for the project have already been signed, those for the high-voltage direct current (HVDC) infrastructure are pending. In February, Elia put their signing on hold due to the increased cost of the HVDC technology. The delay will lead to a delay of about three years but will offer time to “evaluate the current design against alternative concepts in a changing market context,” Elia said.
