At this moment, an all-out effort is made on the North Sea to finish the Belwind wind farm by the end of 2010. It will include 55 turbines that will supply 175,000 Belgian households with green power and cut CO2 emissions by 270,000 tons per year. A 26.9 percent participation in the capital makes the Colruyt Group the main shareholder of Belwind. Thanks to this participation, the group will be able to run completely on its own green energy.


Green power for the Belgian grid
The farm with 55 3 MW turbines will probably be ready by the end of 2010. With a total capacity of 165 megawatts (MW) it will produce an estimated 550,000 MWh of green power. Enough to supply 175,000 Belgian households with power and to cut CO2 emissions by 270,000 tons per year.


Well located
Belwind is set up on the Bligh sandbank. It covers a demarcated surface of 35 km² and is 46 km off the coast in an area marked out for wind farms by the government. The park is so far out at sea that it is not visible from the coast. The location guarantees a high wind yield and respects other users of the sea such as fishermen. Animal life and vegetation can flourish in the demarcated area.


Home territory
The wind farm is built by the Belgian nv Belwind combining Belgian and international expertise. Apart from the Colruyt Group other investors are PMV (Paticipatiemaatschappij Vlaanderen), the Colruyt family and three Dutch parties: the family holding SHV, the energy cooperation Meewind and Rabobank.


100% own green power
The investment of the Colruyt Group in Belwind serves a strategic purpose. By the end of 2011 the group wants to draw all the energy it needs from renewable energy sources. The participation in Belwind partly realises this objective. The group completely runs on green power today: we produce part of it; the rest is bought for now.

Since the Colruyt Group seeks corporate social responsibility, it has been producing green power for a while now. The company possesses a wind turbine in Halle (1999), and in Ghislenghien (2006) and two in Ieper (2009). The group also participates in the Eldepasco wind farm (2013) in the North Sea that will supply 200,000 households with a capacity of 216 MW.

By systematically investing in solar energy, the group has nearly 4 MW of solar installations on stores and distribution centres today. Finally, the company draws energy from the fermentation of organic waste and will take an installation of 21 MW in use in 2011 to produce green power from unusable fats.

Base Zeebrugge
The turbines are largely assembled in Zeebrugge. The turbines are made by the Danish manufacturer Vestas that is in charge of the installation, operation and maintenance. Main contractor at sea is the Dutch off-shore expert Van Oord. The Belgian consortium Seawind takes care of the electrical connections and the off-shore high tension station.