Construction work has been initiated to develop the largest onshore wind farm in Belgium, which will be located in the Antwerp port area to the left bank of the Scheldt river.

The wind farm is expected to house 40 to 50 turbines, 15 of which will be installed under the first phase of development at an estimated investment of €70m.

Once completed, the first phase will be able to generate enough power for 35,000 Flemish households.

The turbines for the initial phase have a generation capacity of 3MW each. They are manufactured by Siemens Wind Power in Denmark.

Each of the turbines has a rotor diameter of 113m, a shaft height of 115m, and is fitted with Siemens anti-icing system to prevent ice build-up and freezing weather damages.

Siemens Wind Power CEO for onshore activities Jan Kjaersgaard said: “One of the challenges of this project is installing the turbines on sites with restricted area, because of the high-density of industrial activities in the port.”

The equipment will be installed on port company sites of Antwerp Gateway, Borealis, Euroports, Global Container Services, Indaver, Luiknatie, Norbert Dentressangle, Sea Port Terminals, Tabaknatie, and Van Loon Transport.

Antwerp Port Authority has teamed up with the Left Bank Development Corporation and Antwerp Green Port construction consortium in September 2011 for the large-scale wind development.

Wind aan de Stroom obtained the initial planning permission for the project in June 2013.

Turbine foundation works for the project was initiated by the end of 2014, following which at the beginning of 2015, the first components for the turbine foundations were delivered at the site.