The Thortonbank project was the first offshore wind project to be developed in the Belgian North Sea. In order to prove the viability of this innovative concept and the policy tool put in place, the Belgian authorities required C-Power to start the project with a pilot phase (also named demonstration phase). This pilot phase is the 1st of the 3 phases of the C-Power project.

Phase 1 consists of six 5M Senvion turbines in a single line. The wind turbines are built on gravity-based foundations and are connected together by 33 kV cables. They are then linked to the onshore high voltage station through a 150 kV export cable, which is currently used at 33 kV with an onshore transformer to inject into the 36 kV grid.