A new milestone has been reached in the development of Belgium’s offshore energy hub, Princess Elisabeth, with the first steel cut for the construction of the high-voltage alternating current (HVAC) infrastructure.

The steel cutting ceremony was held at the HSM Offshore Energy yard in Schiedam in the Netherlands.

The HVAC modules, which include high-voltage substations and a facility module, will be directly installed onto the Princess Elisabeth offshore energy hub.

Located 45 km off the Belgian coast, the artificial island will serve as a key connection point for transporting at least 2.1 GW of offshore wind energy generated in the Princess Elisabeth Zone to the mainland.

The HVAC substations will house essential components such as power transformers and gas-insulated switchgear (GIS), forming the backbone of the island’s AC transmission infrastructure.

The modules are being built by HSI Pemac, a Belgian-Dutch consortium comprising HSM Offshore Energy, Smulders, and Iv-Offshore & Energy.

The broader HVAC infrastructure for the island will include 330 km of 220 kV HVAC subsea cables, connecting the island’s AC infrastructure to Belgium’s mainland grid.

“The start of the construction of the island’s HVAC infrastructure shows that the project is progressing steadily, even as we adapt its next phase in line with new market realities,” said Frédéric Dunon, CEO of Elia Transmission Belgium.

On June 6, 2025, the Belgian federal government announced that an alternative approach for the next phase of the Princess Elisabeth offshore energy hub would be developed.

The updated approach aims to reduce costs by responding to the sharp global increase in the price of high-voltage direct current (HVDC) technology and related offshore services.

The ambitions for this phase remain unchanged – to expand the offshore wind capacity in Belgium’s second offshore wind zone and to realize a second interconnector with the United Kingdom.

Princess Elisabeth offshore energy hub will be the world’s first artificial energy island, collecting electricity from new wind farms and integrating renewable energy into the European grid.