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Thursday January 11th, 2018 the secretaries Coast Guard were present at a kick-off meeting regarding the Norther offshore windpark, together with various coast guard partners. The meeting was presided by Captain Gyssens of the Maritime Rescue and Coordination Centre (MRCC) of our coast guard partner Shipping Assistance Division. In the spring of this year, construction of the wind farm will begin so as to be operational in 2019. After completion, the wind farm will have an installed power of 350 Megawatts and will be the biggest offshore project in Belgium. It will be built at approximately 22 kilometres from the Belgian coast, within a zone southeast of the Thornton Bank, alongside the border with the Netherlands and will provide sustainable energy for about 350 000 households. 

October 1st 2017, the Rentel offshore wind concession brought its export cable ashore in Zeebruges. This cable will transport the energy induced on the Rentel windfarm to shore. With the landfall of this export cable, Rentel will be the first windfarm connected to the new high voltage station “Stevin”, in Zeebruges.

The cable, with a length of 40 kilometers, was placed within a dredged trench on the seabed by a cable laying vessel. A cable laying barge took over in the shallow waters 6 kilometer before the coast and brought the cable ashore. The installation of the last 450 meters of cable on the beach was done by means of mobile cranes. Dredgers filled the trench, thus burying the cable in the seabed.

The Rentel project is located approximately 40 km from Ostend, and is the fifth offshore windproject in the Belgian North Sea. It will comprise 42 Siemens turbines and will deliver renewable energy to 300.000 households. The windfarm should be operational by mid-2018. The coast guard partners monitor the developments in the working group windfarms.

The Belgian Coast Guard secretariat participated to the ninth plenary session of the European Coast Guard Function Forum (ECGFF). This session took place on 28-29 September 2017 at the European Maritime Security Agency (EMSA) headquarters in Lisbon, Portugal.

Supported by the European Commission, this Forum, which dates back to 2009, brings together national coastguard authorities from EU member states and associated Schengen countries who jointly work on issues such as multi-agency multinational operations and capacity building among coast guard academies. The Commission envisages closer coordination with the ECGFF and its gradual integration into the EU Agencies' framework, thereby opening the way to incorporating crucial expert advice when providing support to national coast guard authorities in their daily work.

At the end of the meeting the ECGFF chairmaship was handed over from Portugal to Germany.

An almost intact German submarine dating from WWI was discovered in Belgian waters. Earlier this year underwater scans had identified an object which bore the hallmarks of a submarine. After further investigation this was confirmed, it is a UB-II type submarine. The wreck lies at a depth of 30 meters and it is suspected that the bodies of the 23-strong crew are still on board. Governor Carl Decaluwé, the official receiver of archeologic findings in Belgian waters, has asked secretary of state for the North Sea Philippe De Backer to protect this unique finding. As long as the investigation is ongoing, the location of the wreck will not be revealed. To enable further and precise identification, the number on the propeller will be searched for.  Eleven sunken U-boats have been found so far in Belgian waters, but none has been preserved as good as this latest one.

More on underwater heritage: vondsteninzee.be and reporting findings at sea