La Rochelle's know-how
For several years now, Port Atlantique La Rochelle has demonstrated its capacity to handle a wide range of goods, and in particular heavy cargo, including onshore wind turbine parts and, more recently, offshore wind turbine parts.
Its nautical facilities and the absence of air draught constraints have enabled the Port to position itself as a logistics hub for the Saint-Nazaire wind farm: for almost 18 months, the foundations for the machines (80 monopiles and 80 transition pieces) were shipped from Eiffage's Belgian plant in Antwerp to the Port, before being installed by Deme and its Innovation jack-up. These parts, measuring up to 65 metres in length and weighing up to 1,000 tonnes, were stored on a 4-hectare site.
The Maritime Kuhn group is the leading operator in this sector in La Rochelle. The group is known as one of France’s heavy cargo specialists. The private operator has been developing its activities in onshore wind power for around twenty years, and in offshore wind power since February 2021.
The Anse Saint-Marc port area has been developed into a logistics hub to accommodate the foundations and transition pieces for the wind turbines powering the offshore wind farm of Saint-Nazaire.
This exceptionally large industrial cargo will benefit from the proven technical expertise of the port’s dockers, the land available and the quality of the port’s nautical access, as well as the know-how of La Rochelle-based subsidiary Maritime Kuhn.
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La Rochelle, offshore wind power hub | Videos
Between February 2021 and May 2022, the foundations (monopiles and transition pieces) for the Saint-Nazaire wind farm were transported to the Anse Saint-Marc terminal for temporary storage before being transferred to the wind farm for installation. Shipments continued throughout the period, resulting in the installation of 80 machines.
Video review of this operation
| La Rochelle, offshore wind power hub | "Svenja" arrival with offshore wind turbine parts |
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| Transition pieces unloading | Foundations pieces unloading |
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Aquitania Ports Link
Created in 2022, the Aquitania Ports Link association brings together the New Aquitaine Region, the New Aquitaine Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the Bayonne Port, Bordeaux Port, Charente Atlantique Port and La Rochelle Atlantic Port.
Created as an entity for cooperation, pooling and exchanges of best practice, Aquitania Ports Link aims to promote and develop the seaports of the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region.
In this context, in October 2022, La Rochelle, Rochefort-Tonnay-Charente, Bordeaux and Bayonne ports jointly applied to the call for expressions of interest launched by the French government for the development of port infrastructures to meet the needs of the floating wind energy industry.
For La Rochelle, this application is a continuation of the port’s successful experience as a logistics hub for the foundations of the offshore wind farm off the coast of Saint-Nazaire.
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Aquitaine Blue Energies
Aquitaine Blue Energies is an association which was created in May 2021 in La Rochelle. Its purpose is to support the economic development of the marine energy sector.
The association was born from the desire of companies in the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region to come together around a common project: to participate in the economic development of offshore wind power and marine renewable energies (tidal power, wave power, etc.) in our region.
The association was founded by 7 members in various fields of marine energy (AIS ELEC Bordeaux, AMLP-Groupe Maritime Kuhn, Energie de la Lune, LECAMUS, REEL, Tecnalia, Union Maritime de La Rochelle and Valemo).
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