The build of the first ever 'energy outlet at sea' in the Belgian part of the North Sea has almost reached its completion (source: de standaard). The Modular Offshore Grid (MOG), as the construction is called officially, was constructed using an investment of 400 million euro by Elia in 2017. Construction will be completed once the structure, measuring 400 meters high and weighing 2000 tons, is placed on top of its fundaments which are already in place at the site. It consists of three separate decks with a helipad on top (source: vrt).
The MOG will be located approximately 40 km outside the coast of Zeebrugge, and just southwest of the wind farms in the Belgian part of the North Sea. Its close proximity to the windfarms is no accident. The MOG forms a central hub where all cables coming from the wind farms are going to be joint together, before being bundled in three submarine cables to the mainland. There, the cables will be connected to the high voltage station in Zeebrugge to enable the transfer of energy to the Belgian high voltage net. Each submarine cable is capable of transporting 220 kV to the mainland. The combined total capacity of the four latest wind farms is estimated to be 1.030 MW (source: knack).
This way of work differs from the old, as ordinarily every wind farm was the sole responsible for the cables running from its own concession to the mainland. Bundling all these cables will raise the efficiency and safety of the cabling within the Belgian part of the North Sea, as it would render 40 km of additional cables obsolete. Additionally, this way of work enables a continuous transfer of energy coming from the windfarms, even when one of the offshore cables has any defects (source: knack).
With this development, Belgium retains itself as a pioneer in offshore wind energy. The idea is to bring the MOG online during the third trimester of 2019, in order to have everything fully operational in 2020 when all wind farms should be operational as well.
The location of the 'outlet' is displayed on the map next to this article. You can watch and download it using this link.
| Seamade - Mermaid zone | Construction in 2019 |
| Northwester 2 | Construction in 2019 |
| Belwind / Nobelwind | Operational |
| Seamade - Seastar zone | Construction in 2019 |
| Northwind | Operational |
| Rentel | Under construction |
| C-Power | Operational |
| Norther / North Sea Power | Under construction |
This table shows the present offshore wind farms for the Belgian part of the North Sea and there status, given in order from north to south. More information on this topic can be found on the Energy themepage within the Coastal Portal.
