Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners (CIP) has placed an order worth KRW 390 billion (approximately EUR 260 million) with South Korean company SK oceanplant for jacket foundations that will be installed on the 500 Fengmiao 1 offshore wind project in Taiwan.
CIP was awarded capacity for Fengmiao 1 in the first round of Taiwan’s Round 3 Zonal Development Offshore Wind Auction in December 2022. The entire Fengmiao offshore wind project, located some 35 kilometres off the coast of Taichung in central Taiwan, will have an installed capacity of 1,800 MW.
The construction of the 500 MW Fengmiao 1 is planned to commence in 2025 and the offshore wind farm is expected to enter into commercial operation in 2027.
The project, being developed by Copenhagen Offshore Partners (COP) on behalf of CIP, will comprise 15 MW offshore wind turbines and will be CIP’s first offshore wind farm in Taiwan to feature an offshore substation.
SK ecoplant, the parent company of SK oceanplant, says that the Fengmiao 1 foundations contract is a continuation of the company’s partnership with CIP in Taiwan, following work on CIP’s Changfang & Xidao and Zhong Neng projects.
The news about the order of the jacket foundations for CIP’s 500 MW Taiwanese project comes shortly after the South Korean companies announced the signing of an agreement with CIP for the manufacture, transport and installation of floating wind foundations for the Danish developer’s 1.5 GW floating wind farm in South Korea.
SK oceanplant is currently building a new production facility for offshore wind structures in Goseong, Gangwon Province. Planned to be completed by the end of 2026, the new production base, measuring 1.57 million square metres, will have the capacity to produce both jacket and floating foundations, as well as offshore substations.
With SK oceanplant’s existing yard of 930,000 square metres and the new production facility, the company will have 2.5 million square metres of production areas and says this will be the world’s largest production base for offshore wind substructures. Currently, the existing yard (consisting of yards 1 and 2) has an annual jacket production capacity of about 50 units. Once the new production base is in operation, SK oceanplant will have the capability to produce about 40 floating, 4,500-tonne substructures per year.