World’s first energy island takes shape in Belgium’s North Sea

Europe is adding a remarkable new element to its growing renewable energy network. With limited land available for further onshore wind installations in Belgium, the country and Europe as a whole are increasingly looking offshore for wind energy. The EU currently produces 16 GW of offshore wind power, and plans to increase that to 300 GW by 2050. Princess Elisabeth Island (PEI), located off the Belgian coast along the continental shelf, will be the first offshore hub for wind energy in the world. Following a stringent nature-inclusive design, construction began in March 2024 and is expected to run through 2028.

IMDC, a Tractebel company, is owner’s engineer for world’s first energy island

IMDC’s multidisciplinary teams of experts, together with partners CDR International and Svasek, are supporting client Elia as owner’s engineer. As such, we are assisting with all technical matters of the island scope of the modular offshore grid 2 (MOG2) project, advising the client during the design and execution phase by reviewing the design works performed by TM Edison (a joint venture between Jan De Nul and DEME), and performing independent calculations and support during the construction of the island.

Our Infrastructures – Ports & Waterways experts are responsible for concrete and steel structural design, while Tractebel company IMDC is covering general project management, geotechnical aspects, cable landing, constructability, method statements, passive infrastructure, drainage, and navigational and downtime assessments.

Tractebel’s Offshore Energy experts providing construction management services

In parallel to IMDC’s mandate, our Offshore Renewable Energy experts are providing construction management services to Elia. Tractebel is on site full-time to supervise the caisson construction just over the Belgian border in Vlissingen, the Netherlands, on the North Sea coast. The 23 20,000-ton caissons will form the foundations of Princess Elisabeth Island. At present, Tractebel has a construction manager and project engineer on hand to lead the construction yard team, which follows up on the safety, execution and quality performed by the contractor TME.

The yard in Vlissingen, where the caissons are built, is one of the biggest construction sites in the Benelux region. During peak construction times, there are around 800 people on site to work on the different stations. The caissons are huge structures – 57 m by 28 m by 23 m high – which are being constructed in five phases. The most crucial phase is on Station 2, where the main structure of the caisson is built in a continuous, round-the-clock concreting process known as“slipforming” for 10 days.

The main challenge of the project will be the tight planning and managing the vast amount of simultaneous activities, with the yard team at the forefront to lead the project to a successful completion.

Energy island to link windfarms to the Belgian coast – and across borders

The energy energy island is a main component of the MOG2 project, which aims to develop and build offshore transmission infrastructure and cable networks to link new wind farms in the Belgian North Sea to Elia’s high-voltage mainland transmission grid. This colossal amount of electricity is in part earmarked for neighbouring countries. The energy island will also serve as an interconnection point and provide the possibility of connecting more European territories in the future.

Princess Elisabeth Island, with a target capacity of up to 3.5 GW, is a crucial link to Europe’s energy independence

“After developing the energy island’s design concept and preparing the reference design and tender documentation, we are proud to continue our involvement in the development of the world’s first energy island,” says Luca Barbetti, Product Manager Blue Energy at IMDC.

“Close collaboration between our Tractebel colleagues from Ports & Waterways, IMDC and Renewable Energy is what makes our contribution to this historic project possible.” Stijn Verplanken, Tractebel Product Manager -  Offshore Consultancy, adds: “Our team is pleased to play a crucial role in developing such an innovative renewable energy solution. PEI is a unique project where a synergy of maritime, civil and hydraulic design expertise in offshore engineering are combined to build a first of a kind energy Island. By boosting employment, the economy, and especially Europe’s energy independence, this project of reference marks outstanding progress in sustainable energy innovation and development.”