First Made-in-Taiwan Jacket Foundations Head Offshore

Ørsted and Sing Da Marine Structure (SDMS) have loaded out the first batch of jacket foundations fully manufactured in Taiwan out of the Port of Kaohsiung.

The first six jacket foundations will be transported to the 900 MW Changhua 1 and 2a wind farm in two shipments this week, Ørsted said.

There, they will be installed by Heerema Marine Contractors’ heavy lift vessel Aegir.

Back in 2018, Ørsted ordered 56 jacket foundations for Changhua 1 and 2a at SDMS. The foundations were originally planned to be delivered throughout 2020 and 2021.

Each wind turbine jacket foundation weighs more than 1,200 tons with a height of approximately 60-80 metres, and comprises more than a thousand components.

The jacket foundations are custom designed to meet the special weather and seabed conditions for the Greater Changhua 1 & 2a wind farms to ensure that they can last for at least 25-30 years.

The Changhua 1 and 2a offshore wind farms will comprise a total of 111 Siemens Gamesa 8 MW turbines.

Offshore construction on the Greater Changhua 1 and 2a wind farms started in the summer of 2021 with the installation of the first wind turbine jacket foundation and the laying of the first export cable.

Since then, 95 jacket foundations and 48 out of 111 Siemens Gamesa SG 8.0-167DD wind turbines have been installed at the project’s offshore construction site.

Aegir completed the foundation installation on Greater Changhua 2a in May and then moved on to do the same work on Greater Changhua 1.

Seajack Scylla, a wind turbine installation vessel operated by Seajacks, part of Eneti Inc., is installing the wind turbines at the project site located 35-50 kilometres off the coast of Changhua County.

In April, the offshore wind farm produced its first power after the installation and energisation of the first batch of turbines.

The 605 MW Greater Changhua 1 wind farm is owned by Ørsted (50 per cent), and a consortium comprising Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec (CDPQ) and the Taiwanese private equity fund, Cathay PE (50 per cent).

The 295 MW Changhua 2a is solely owned by Ørsted.

Ørsted has postponed the full commissioning of the wind farms from the end of 2022 to 2023, citing delays caused by the COVID-19 pandemic as the main reason.

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