Offshore Construction Coming Up on 1 GW Hai Long, CAPE Holland to Supply Vibro Lifting Tools

January 17, 2024, by Adrijana Buljan

The installation of pin piles for the jacket foundations on Taiwan’s 1,044 MW Hai Long offshore wind farm is expected to start in March. CAPE Holland has been contracted to supply its CAPE Vibro Lifting Tools to CSBC-DEME Wind Engineering (CDWE), whose vessel Green Jade will be installing the piles.

CDWE signed a contract for the transportation and installation of the foundations, turbines, and offshore substations for the three offshore wind farms making up the Hai Long project in 2022. For the pin pile installation, CDWE will deploy its vessel Green Jade, the first offshore heavy lift DP3 installation vessel built in Taiwan, which debuted on the Zhong Neng offshore wind farm last year.

The Dutch supplier of foundation installation equipment, CAPE Holland, will provide its pile-driving system, for which the company says was designed for efficient and quiet installation of offshore foundations.

The Vibro Lifting Technology (VLT) allows for upending and lifting, including the handling of the pre-piling template and pile driving to the required depth. CAPE Holland says its VLT was selected for the installation to mitigate the risk of pile run and to improve installation efficiency by not requiring a separate upending tool.

On Hai Long, CDWE will first use CAPE VLT-640 Single for the installation of the pin piles and the tool will then be converted to a tandem version for the installation of the foundation piles for the project’s offshore substation.

Hai Long will comprise two offshore wind farms, the 532 MW Hai Long 2 and the 512 MW Hai Long 3. The project is being developed in three phases as Hai Long 2 has been split into two smaller offshore wind farms, the 300 MW Hai Long 2a and the 232 MW Hai Long 2b.

The 1,044 MW project will have 73 Siemens Gamesa SG 14-222 DD wind turbines, installed on three-legged jacket foundations approximately 45-70 kilometres off the Changhua coast in the Taiwan Strait, in water depth between 41-56 metres.

Expected to be commissioned in 2025/2026, Hai Long is owned and developed by Hai Long Offshore Wind, a consortium comprising Northland Power, Yushan Energy, Mitsui & Co., Ltd., and Gentari.