Siport21 is involved in the development of the Princess Elisabeth Island, the world’s first artificial energy island. This infrastructure will be paramount in the future renewable energy solutions in Europe.
Princess Elisabeth Island will be located 45 km off the Belgian coast and will connect the wind farms in the offshore area with the mainland high-voltage grid. It is specially designed to withstand the challenging harsh offshore conditions in the North Sea.
The artificial island will be a crucial link in the Belgian energy supply. It will open up the future Princess Elisabeth wind zone (3.5 GW) and connect Belgium to Great Britain and Denmark via additional interconnectors (Nautilus and TritonLink projects).
The area assigned for the installation of the electrical infrastructure will be approximately 6 hectares in size. The artificial island will be located within the Princess Elisabeth wind zone and will be constructed from concrete caissons filled with sand. A small harbour and helicopter platform will also be provided in order to allow maintenance crews access to the island.
Siport21, as a part of the design team of TM Edison, a joint venture of DEME and Jan De Nul, has been the responsible of the evaluation and verification of the nautical access of the crew transport vessels in the small harbour.
Taking into account the harsh meteorological conditions of the area, the port layout of the Island required to be evaluated to verify the nautical accessibility of the design vessels in terms of the required navigation area and the operational limits while maintaining the safety of the operations.
