COSCO Shipping Specialized Carriers has completed a floatover installation of the converter platform for the Qingzhou V & VII offshore wind project in China, which features a 2 GW offshore high-voltage direct current (HVDC) transmission system.
The Three Gorges Qingzhou V & VII offshore wind project is being built off Yangjiang City and will comprise 163 wind turbines.
The offshore wind farm is expected to generate around 7.7 TWh of electricity annually once fully operational, enough to power more than one million households and reduce carbon emissions by approximately 6.3 million tonnes per year, according to COSCO.
The offshore converter platform weighs approximately 25,000 tonnes, making it one of the largest offshore structures installed in the offshore wind sector to date, the company said.
For the project, COSCO Shipping Specialized Carriers delivered an integrated transportation and floatover installation solution covering the load-out, transport and offshore installation phases.
The operation was carried out using the DP2 semi-submersible vessel Xiang Tai Kou , which is designed for both heavy transport and offshore installation work.
The company also revealed that it is expanding its offshore fleet with a new 70,000-tonne-class semi-submersible vessel currently under construction. The newbuild is planned to support larger and more technically demanding offshore energy installation projects, including offshore wind and oil and gas infrastructure.