The SeaMade wind farm was officially inaugurated on 20 October 2021 in the presence of Prime Minister Alexander De Croo, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of the North Sea Vincent Van Quickenborne, Minister of Energy Tinne Van der Straeten, Vice-President of the Walloon government and Minister of Climate, Energy and Mobility Philippe Henry and Mayor of Ostend Bart Tommelein. SeaMade NV is responsible for the simultaneous development of both the Mermaid and Seastar offshore wind farms, resulting in the largest wind farm ever financed and built in Belgium.

A special naming ceremony was held for the world’s first DP2, twin-hulled Service Operation Vessel ‘Groenewind’. The Belgian Federal Minister of Energy, Tinne Van der Straeten is the godmother of this unique vessel and she smoothly smashed the champagne bottle down on the hull, heralding a new era in offshore wind farm maintenance.

In a pioneering project in the offshore wind industry, DEME Offshore and Sabca performed tests with autonomous drones at the Rentel offshore wind farm in Belgium. The pilot study represents the first commercial, cross-border, ‘beyond visual line of sight’ (BVLOS) drone operations to take place at offshore wind farms in the North Sea.