date 9 March 2021 pages 3

PRESS RELEASE

DEME Offshore and Sabca test drones for O&M and critical operations at a wind farm in the North Sea

DEME Offshore and Sabca successfully performed a series of tests at the Rentel offshore wind farm in the North Sea, preparing for autonomous surveillance, rescue and detection missions in the near future. Their goal is to replace critical and ad hoc operations with autonomous aerial vehicles.

In a pioneering project in the offshore wind industry, DEME Offshore and Sabca performed tests with autonomous drones at the Rentel offshore wind farm in . The pilot study represents the first commercial, cross‐border, ‘beyond visual line of sight’ (BVLOS) drone operations to take place at offshore wind farms in the North Sea.

The partners performed a diverse range of tests on various use cases including Search & Rescue operations, environmental surveys, turbine and substation inspections, as well as parcel deliveries. Uniquely, both a ‘traditional’ multicopter drone and a fixed‐wing surveillance drone, which has a wing span of more than 3 m, were deployed in parallel. The long endurance surveillance drone took off from the Belgian coast and flew all the way to the Rentel wind farm, which is more than 35 km off the coast. Meanwhile, an automated resident drone performed inspections and cargo flights from the substation and vessels. This drone also conducted a full Search & Rescue demonstration using infrared detection and life buoy dropping.

By combining the drone operations with the use of artificial intelligence for automatic image processing, a strong set of tools has been developed to automate operations which are currently being executed by people. The partners believe that applications can go beyond the offshore wind industry and offers solutions for safety‐critical missions at sea or above land.

Game‐changing potential Bart De Poorter, General Manager DEME Offshore, comments: “We are convinced that these innovative, advanced technologies, which focus on fully autonomous operations without the need for any vessels and people offshore, have a game‐changing potential to increase safety, lower the impact on the environment in the O&M phase of a project and reduce the overall costs. Ultimately, we expect unmanned vehicles to contribute significantly to a lower Levelised Cost of Energy.”

Thibauld Jongen, CEO of Sabca, says: “Sabca uses its experience in the aviation and space industry to develop aviation‐grade systems that allow safety‐critical missions to be performed in the most stringent conditions. Safety is the most important aspect when operating above cities, near critical infrastructure and in the controlled airspace. Therefore, we are running different projects where we test our systems

to their limits. These successful missions with DEME Offshore confirm the commercial possibilities of our systems and are a next step after having performed other firsts, such as medical transport missions over Antwerp and several cargo transportations over land.”

Video: https://youtu.be/QslRzfHnt1o

About DEME DEME is a world leader in the specialised fields of dredging, solutions for the offshore energy industry, infra marine and environmental works. The company can build on more than 140 years of know‐how and is a front runner in innovation and new technologies.

DEME’s vision is to work towards a sustainable future by offering solutions for global challenges: a rising sea level, a growing population, reduction of CO2 emissions, polluted rivers and soils and the scarcity of natural resources.

DEME can rely on 5,200 highly skilled professionals and a modern fleet of over 100 vessels. www.deme‐ group.com

Contact: Vicky Cosemans, Head of Communications cosemans.vicky@deme‐group.com ‐ T: +32 3 250 59 22

About Sabca The Sabca Group conducts operations from the three Belgian regions ( Capital Region, Charleroi in Wallonia, and Lummen in Flanders), as well as from Casablanca, Morocco. Today, Sabca benefits from a large palette of expertise, built over its 100 years of experience in designing, , maintaining, and upgrading large and complex elements for and space launchers. Its customers and partners belong to the elite of the industry. Sabca offers a full range of services to the civil, space and military aviation markets and recently expanded into the commercial Unmanned Autonomous Systems market as an integrator of aerospace‐grade solutions for the industry. For more information: www..com

Sabca is a part of Blueberry, a unique industrial ecosystem in the Belgian aerospace industry which is owned by Sabena Aerospace (holding company) and by the Société Fédérale de Participations et d’Investissements (SFPI/FPIM). Through its subsidiaries, Blueberry is active in the design, development and manufacture of aviation and aerospace equipment, offers maintenance services for aircraft and brings solutions to drive the sustainable development of the industry as a whole. In doing so, the group addresses its customers business needs from end‐to‐end.

The Blueberry group owns four sites (Zaventem, Haren, Gosselies and Lummen), is active in more than 10 countries around the globe and has more than 1200 employees in Belgium and abroad and a cumulated turnover of 250 mio euro. For more information: www.blueberrygroup.be