Effective works Phase 2 - 3

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2011 : week 36

Due to the bad weather conditions of past week no progress is recorded for the offshore works

Fabrication and assembly of the steel structures for the Jacket foundations are ongoing at different yards in Europe and Asia, (Belgium-Netherlands-United Kingdom-Poland-Germany-Spain-South Korea).All the jackets for phase II are constructed.The base materials for the jackets of phase III are purchased,the construction of midsections are ongoing and the first jacket assembly started.A jacket foundation is a steelstructure of tubulars designed to support the windturbines.The height of a jacket varies between 40 and 50 m.

The pile driving works started in area B of the windfarm on Wednesday 6th of April 2011. Steel piles of 40 to 50 m are driven into the seabed by a hammer installation mounted on the jack up platform Buzzard. These so called "pin-piles" are the anchors to seal the jacket foundations into the seabed.The length of the piles depends on the soil conditions.To assure the correct locations of the piles a template is lowered onto the seabed. On Sunday August the 21st all pile driving works for the project were complete which means that 196 piles were driven into the seabed in about 4,5 months.

The jacket foundation installation for the offshore transformer station, (OTS), was executed on the 15th of August 2011.

The Heavy Lift Vessel "Rambiz" installed the first jacket foundation for the windturbines in area B on Sunday 12/06/2011 and on Tuesday 14/06/2011 this foundation was grouted to the pin-piles.Today 18 foundations out of the 24 for area B are installed and grouted.

The 33 kV infield cables, making the future connection between the wind turbines were picked up in Karlskrona, Sweden, on the 23th of July and were transported to Zeebruge by the cable lay vessel CS Sovereign. The infield cable laying works started on 12/08/11.7 out of the 24 strings of cables between the jackets and between jackets and the OTS are now installed.

The procurement of the raw materials for the 150 kV export cable is ongoing and the manufacturing started in Karlskrona, Sweden. This export cable is the second connection between the windfarm and the land cables

The steelstructure of the Offshore Transformer Station is being assembled in the workyard of HSM Schiedam, Netherlands.The internal finishings are ongoing before the installation of the transformer equipment.

REpower, the contractor for the wind turbines, started purchasing parts of the wind turbines.Production start dates are as follows:the towers by AMBAU-Cuxhaven Germany from beginning of September 2011, the blades production by LM Glasfiber Holding Denmark started in July 2011, the generators by VEM Germany from October 2011 and the gearboxes by 2 constructors, WINERGY-Vörde Germany from September 2011 and HANSEN-Belgium from October 2011.

Directional drillings were executed on land for the 150 kV cable laying onshore which is planned to commence in mid September 2011. The Factory Acceptance Tests of the land cables are complete.These cables make the connection between the offshore windfarm and the sub-station of Elia onshore.