The port of Oostende is one of the 4 Flemish Sea ports in the
Southern North Sea. It is a traditional city port, where the inner
port stretches for 7 km alongside the canal, linking Oostende
to the European inland waterway network. It is well connected
by motorway and rail. Considering the pressure of real estate
developers and "visionary" urbanists, it is not longer possible to
expand the outer port. The nautical access allows vessels with a
maximum length of 200 meters and the depth is situated at 8 LAT.
In traditional economic and logistic
thinking, where the importance of
ports is calculated on the basis of
number of crates handled in and
out of ports with ever bigger vessels,
it is clear that one can ask questions
about the future and viability of small
and medium-sized ports in the
North Sea.
But there is more than cargo traffic in
the North Sea. A strategy paper of the
European Commission to the European
Parliament in 2012 outlines this very
clearly: “Blue Growth, opportunities
for marine and maritime sustainable
growth”. In other words, the potential
for maritime economic growth is
situated at sea.
THE EARLY DAYS OF BLUE ENERGY AND OFFSHORE WIND AT THE PORT OF OOSTENDE
The port of Oostende started in the
blue growth in the sector in 2007-2008
with the construction of the first phase
of the C-Power offshore wind park.
This new economic activity needed a
specially dedicated infrastructure and
space within the outer port, in order to
be able to realize construction at sea.
Considering the licenses were given
for the construction of 8 offshore wind
parks by the Belgian government, it
was clear that the port of Oostende had
to rethink its elementary infrastructure
in order to be able to handle the
installation and maintenance of the
offshore wind parks. In 2009, the port
revised its core strategy and embarked
on its ambition to become "The Flemish
service port for the Blue Growth
economy".
This has resulted in the set-up of a
Public-Private partnership, involving
ARTES constructions, Deme Blue
Energy, Offshore & Wind assistance,
Participatiemaatschappij Vlaanderen
and the port of Oostende, called
NV REBO (Renewable Energy Base
Oostende). The goal of NV REBO is to
become an efficient and cost effective
offshore terminal for handling, lifting,
storing, assembling and transporting
all kind of offshore components. In
2011, the port of Oostende and NV
REBO invested more than 5 000 000
euro in the building of the heavy load
quay, and developed office and storage
space for the different service providers
in the offshore industry.
THE POLICY FRAMEWORK
The wind farms in the Belgian North
Sea make an important contribution
to achieve the Belgian renewable
energy targets. Today, 182 wind mills
have been installed, producing energy
for approx. 600 000 households. The
aim is to install 450 wind mills with an
overall capacity of 2,245 MW and an
annual electricity output of 7,700,000
MWH. This is equivalent to 9% of the
total electricity consumption in Belgium
(8085 TWh).
BLUE ENERGY AND OFFSHORE WIND TODAY AT THE PORT OF OOSTENDE
The operational mission of the port of
Oostende is to become a home for all
the enterprises related to the offshore
industry and to cluster the knowledge,
technology and industry in this sector.
To achieve this the port makes the
necessary investments to facilitate the
installation, the management and the
maintenance of the offshore
wind parks.
As to the installation, one has learnt
that every project is different, and has
its own challenges. The evolution of
the quality and design of offshore
components is enormous, and
experience has shown that every
sea has its own characteristics: what
counts for Belgian waters, does not work in Danish waters. Therefore, it
is of outmost importance that the
offshore components are prepared in
a specialized service port before they
are mounted at sea. The idea that a
wind park can be built with a computer
program somewhere from an office in
Barcelona, linked with an accountancy
spreadsheet , is a mere illusion. The
efficient and cost effective handling
of the offshore components is a key
task for the management of the port
and of REBO : together with the client
they investigate the different options
to organize the operations within
the port. The construction and the
transport at sea of the 6 gravity-based
foundations, with an average weight of
2700 tons each is still a landmark within
the history of the port. Installations
vessels like the Bold Tern (Fred Olsen)
the Innovation and Neptune (Deme
Group) are regular guests at the port
of Oostende, and on the 28th of April,
Queen Mathilde will rebaptize the Vidar
(Jan De Nul Group) .The port works
hard to improve the nautical access,
and improve the swing-circle as well as
straightening the quay walls.
For the management of the offshore
wind parks, the electricity production
at sea needs to be monitored in
function of the supply to the grid for an
efficient price-setting, and increasing
the profitability of the investments.
As to the technical aspects, it means
that the wind park managers have
a daily interaction with the different
subcontractors, service providers
and turbine manufacturers. Wind
park owners/developers C-Power,
Otary (Rentel, Seastar, and Mermaid)
and Parkwind (Rental, Seastar and
Northwester2) have chosen to establish
their headquarters in the port of
Oostende, overlooking a permanent
monitoring of their sea parks.
The operations & maintenance of
the wind parks are vital to keep the
wind mills operating with optimal
efficiency. Several service companies
have set up their offices at the port
in order to oversee the maintenance,
and more companies have asked to
open a representation in the Oostende
offshore village. Considering the
permanent growth of the cluster, the
port management has developed a
sustainable master plan to install the
different enterprises on site, for reasons
of safety, security and sustainability.
The implementation of this process is a
daily and ongoing business operation.
At present, the management is
investigating the economic opportunity
of installing a prototype Xant (midseize/
100kw) wind mill in to provide the
site with electricity.
In the Oostende offshore village,
the turbine manufacturers, Senvion,
Vestas and Alstom have their offices,
warehouses and workshops in order
to be able to intervene in case of
emergency maintenance. The port
has refurbished several buildings
next to the REBO terminal and built
new premises. A wide range of
subcontractor services have found their
way to the port of Oostende, from IT
to training: enterprises like e-Bo, CMI,
Multitech, G4S, CG, Buijsse and Falck
Safety services have found their place
in the Belgian offshore world.
And there are no activities of
operations & maintenance without crew
transfer vessels. More than 3500 calls
per year are registered by the Ensorsystem.
A lot of shipping-companies,
operating these kinds of vessels are
active at the port. Companies like
Windcat, Nordfjord, Sima Charters, Sea
Contractors, MPI, MCS, Stemat, Turbine
Transfers,e.o. operate sailings between
the Belgian wind parks and the port
of Oostende. Most of the shippingcompanies
have their headquarters in the UK, Denmark or Norway. But there
are also Belgian operators: Geosea
and OWA (Offshore Wind Assistance)
are represented. And GEOxyz, which
specialises in high technological
underwater surveys and crew transfer,
have based their fleet of 17 ships at
the port in order to safeguard the
maintenance and fleet management.
Next to GEOxyz, Survitec has opened
a new premise to secure the safety and
security on board the vessels.
In order to support this activity, the port
of Oostende will invest in additional
efficient mooring infrastructure, as well
as a performing IT-systems to secure
efficient communication with the port
users and the nautical authorities.
More land will be made available for
a ship-building company that wants
to provide innovative solutions for
developing more efficient vessels
and satisfy the needs of the wind park
operators.
BLUE GROWTH AT THE PORT OF OOSTENDE: A PERMANENT CHALLENGE
The construction and maintenance
of the offshore wind parks represent
the most important parts of the Blue
Growth development at the port of
Oostende. Apart from wind energy, the
port is also considering other sources
of blue energy: together with Marintek,
Sintef, Highlands & Islands Enterprise,
the universities of Aalborg and Brindisi,
an analysis has been made of the role
that small and medium-seized ports can
play in the development of wave and
tidal energy (www.beppoproject.eu).
The port also actively supports several
practical projects from experimental
development up to full scale testing.
The wave projects Flansea and
Laminaria, that have been testing in
and around the breakwaters of the port,
are excellent examples.
In addition to the production of the
energy at sea, other opportunities
can be realized within the the Blue
Growth strategy. As a result of current
climate conditions, the North Sea is
facing a rising of sea level. In order to
cope with this challenge it is important
to develop new techniques and
technologies for the monitoring of the
sea level as well as the hydraulic and
underwater constructions on shore
and at sea. The project "the Vlaamse
Baaien" has provided a positive
input towards opening the door for
developing new technologies in this
field. Also, the port is investigating the
possibility of establishing temporary
and permanent test facilities in close
cooperation with the marine and
maritime industry. Moreover, the wind
parks offer an opportunity for the
offshore aquaculture to establish new
projects in cooperation with the wind
park managers within the framework
of marine spatial planning. In this
spatial plan, there is also room for
the exploitation and management of
the seabed, the promotion of marine
biotechnology, the cultivation of algae,
in full respect of the eco-system of the
North Sea.
In order to realize these ambitions
and targets, the port of Oostende is
working in close cooperation with
different organizations and institutions
that have established themselves
at the port. An important partner
in these developments is the POM
(Regional Development Agency) of
West-Vlaanderen, which launched "the
Factory of the future Blue Energy" in
2012, to support the clustering and
branding of the marine and offshore
industry in coastal regions. A joint
venture has been set up with the
University of Gent which has resulted
in the building of the Greenbridge
incubator centre in the inner port,
hosting start-ups and companies,
finding their way in renewable energy
and blue growth. Other knowledge
centers that have established their
headquarters are ILVO and VLIZ .
ILVO is the Flemish institute for the
research in fisheries and agriculture,
which investigates new technologies
for fishing and the management of
fish stocks in the North Sea. VLIZ
is the Flemish institute for the Sea
and functions as a coordination- and
information-platform for all scientific
marine and maritime research in
Flanders. It has its own research vessel,
the Simon Stevin, and has built its
own data-center which has gained
international recognition. UNESCO
has also established its project office
for the International Oceanographic
Data & Information Change (IODE)
at the port. Close relationships with
industry have been established. In
2010, the port of Oostende was one
of the founding fathers of the Flanders
Maritime Cluster (FMC), an interest
group for all industries active in and
around the sea. It has its offices in the
port house in Oostende. And recently,
the Belgian Offshore Cluster (BOC) has
been established, gathering different
industrial players in the offshore wind
sector: they have organized the second
edition of the Belgian Offshore days
at the port of Oostende in April 2016
and were present as a cluster at Wind
Energy Hamburg in September 2016.
They play an important role, especially
as the Flemish government in Brussels
still has not discovered the added
value of this blue industry. Finally, the
port is investigating opportunities
for cooperation with the airport of
Oostende-Brugge, for crew transfer
and cargo supply.
CONCLUSION
The port of Oostende is a traditional
port: general cargos, cruises, roll-onroll
off, fisheries, bulk are core activities
within the port of Oostende and they
are taken care of. New projects are
established in the inner port within the
field of circular economy, fine chemicals
(SEVESO-site) and the improvement
of the facilities for inland navigation.
Somehow, the port of Oostende has
decided some years ago to diversify
the economic activities: the strategic
choice for the blue growth and the
investments in the development of
the blue industry, have given the port
of Oostende a new important pillar to
guarantee its viability as a small and
medium-sized port in the North Sea.
Contact details:
Wim Stubbe
Business Development Manager
AG Haven Oostende
Email: wim.stubbe@portofoostende.be
Tel: +32 487 548 768
Website: www.portofoostende.be