Preparations are being made to launch a floating solar energy park in Ostend. The project will initially serve as a test installation to ascertain whether large-scale solar parks at sea are feasible.
Three Belgian companies (the engineering company Tractebel and the dredging groups Deme and Jan De Nul) are putting the finishing touches to 'Seavolt,' a test floating platform fitted with solar panels. The aim is to launch the installation by the second week of August and tow it to a location just outside the port of Ostend – a zone reserved for testing innovative renewable energy projects.
The 20-tonne platform will be anchored in place for a year but will not produce electricity. The main purpose is to estimate whether the solar energy platform (essentially a plastic float with eight solar panels) can withstand the maritime climate such as waves, rain and salt spray.
The ecological consequences, such as the effect of the materials on the marine environment, will also be studied.
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The Federal Government is investing €2 million in the Seavolt project, which includes a study into whether the platform can be combined with the cultivation of mussels and oysters.
At the same time, work is underway on a second, larger solar energy project that will produce electricity, for which the Federal Government has set aside €10 million, announced Minister of the North Sea Vincent Van Quickenborne and State Secretary for Science Policy Thomas Dermine in Ostend on Wednesday morning.
The aim is to organise a tender for the project's construction in 2024, so it will be in use in 2025 or 2026. The hope is that it can serve as an example for future energy parks in the sea of several hundred solar panels.
