C-Power

The C-Power (Thornton Bank) offshore wind farm is Belgium’s first large-scale far‑shore wind project, sited on the Thornton sandbank in the southern North Sea roughly 30 km off the West Flanders coast. Developed as a staged programme beginning with a pilot deployment and expanded into a full commercial array, the project demonstrated key technical and financing precedents for Belgian offshore wind and helped accelerate the country’s renewable energy rollout. What made Thornton Bank notable was its phased delivery model: an initial pilot built to prove foundation and logistics concepts, followed by larger commercial phases that scaled the array and added a dedicated offshore transformer platform and dual export cables. The project consortium used then‑state‑of‑the‑art turbines and marked one of the early commercial uses of very large offshore turbines and jacket foundations in Belgian waters. Delivery combined domestic marine contractors and international electrical suppliers; the offshore transformer station and subsea export system were delivered under a turnkey scope that linked the farm to the onshore grid. Financing for the expansion phases included a multi‑lender package with public export credit support, establishing a market template for subsequent projects. Operational experience from Thornton Bank—on installation sequencing, cable burial, and environmental monitoring—has informed later Belgian developments. The farm remains operated by the C‑Power group and continues to be a strategic asset in Belgium’s offshore wind fleet.