Page 48 - European Energy Innovation - Winter 2016 publication

48 Winter 2016 European Energy Innovation

COMMUNICATION

The port of Oostende

Home for the Blue Growth cluster in the Southern North Sea

The port of Oostende is one of the 4 Flemish Sea ports in the the enterprises related to the offshore
Southern North Sea. It is a traditional city port, where the inner industry and to cluster the knowledge,
port stretches for 7 km alongside the canal, linking Oostende technology and industry in this sector.
to the European inland waterway network. It is well connected To achieve this the port makes the
by motorway and rail. Considering the pressure of real estate necessary investments to facilitate the
developers and “visionary” urbanists, it is not longer possible to installation, the management and the
expand the outer port. The nautical access allows vessels with a maintenance of the offshore
maximum length of 200 meters and the depth is situated at 8 LAT. wind parks.

In traditional economic and logistic service port for the Blue Growth As to the installation, one has learnt
thinking, where the importance of economy”. that every project is different, and has
ports is calculated on the basis of its own challenges. The evolution of
number of crates handled in and This has resulted in the set-up of a the quality and design of offshore
out of ports with ever bigger vessels, Public-Private partnership, involving components is enormous, and
it is clear that one can ask questions ARTES constructions, Deme Blue experience has shown that every
about the future and viability of small Energy, Offshore & Wind assistance, sea has its own characteristics: what
and medium-sized ports in the Participatiemaatschappij Vlaanderen counts for Belgian waters, does not
North Sea. and the port of Oostende, called
NV REBO (Renewable Energy Base
But there is more than cargo traffic in Oostende). The goal of NV REBO is to
the North Sea. A strategy paper of the become an efficient and cost effective
European Commission to the European offshore terminal for handling, lifting ,
Parliament in 2012 outlines this very storing, assembling and transporting
clearly: “Blue Growth, opportunities all kind of offshore components. In
for marine and maritime sustainable 2011, the port of Oostende and NV
growth”. In other words, the potential REBO invested more than 5 000 000
for maritime economic growth is euro in the building of the heavy load
situated at sea. quay, and developed office and storage
space for the different service providers
THE EARLY DAYS OF BLUE ENERGY in the offshore industry.
AND OFFSHORE WIND AT THE PORT
OF OOSTENDE THE POLICY FRAMEWORK.
The port of Oostende started in the The wind farms in the Belgian North
blue growth in the sector in 2007-2008 Sea make an important contribution
with the construction of the first phase to achieve the Belgian renewable
of the C-Power offshore wind park. energy targets. Today, 182 wind mills
This new economic activity needed a have been installed, producing energy
specially dedicated infrastructure and for approx. 600 000 households. The
space within the outer port, in order to aim is to install 450 wind mills with an
be able to realize construction at sea. overall capacity of 2 245 MW and an
Considering the licenses were given annual electricity output of 7 700 000
for the construction of 8 offshore wind MWH. This is equivalent to 9 % of the
parks by the Belgian government, it total electricity consumption in Belgium
was clear that the port of Oostende had (8085 TWh).
to rethink its elementary infrastructure
in order to be able to handle the BLUE ENERGY AND OFFSHORE
installation and maintenance of the WIND TODAY AT THE PORT OF
offshore wind parks. In 2009, the port OOSTENDE
revised its core strategy and embarked The operational mission of the port of
on its ambition to become “The Flemish Oostende is to become a home for all

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