Located between 35km and 60km off the west coast of Changhua County, the offshore wind farms will provide renewable energy to nearly 1 million homes annually
Image: Van Oord has secured cable installation contract for Greater Changhua offshore wind farms. Photo: courtesy of enriquelopezgarre/Pixabay.
Van Oord has secured contract from Ørsted for the cable installation works at the Greater Changhua 1 & 2a offshore wind farms in Taiwan.
Located between 35km and 60km off the west coast of Changhua County, the offshore wind farms will provide renewable energy to nearly 1 million homes annually.
Under the contract, the Dutch maritime contracting company will be responsible for the transportation, installation, and burial of the 111 inter-array cables, with a combined length of nearly 135km, and the 3 export cables, with a total of approximately 145km.
To execute the contract, Van Oord will use its cable-laying vessel Nexus, which is features a cable carousel with a capability of 5,000 tonnes. The firm’s own trencher Dig-It will be used to bury the cables to the necessary depth.
The cable installation work will begin in 2021.
Upon becoming operational in 2022, the Greater Changhua 1 & 2a offshore wind farms will contribute to the Government of Taiwan’s aim of 5.7GW offshore wind by 2025.
Van Oord stated: “As the Taiwanese offshore wind market begins to expand, Van Oord is committed to supporting the further development of the Taiwanese supply chain and marine workforce by sharing our experience and knowledge in these fields.
“Van Oord will work closely together with Taiwanese engineering service providers and support vessel owners to complete this cable installation project successfully.”
Greater Changhua offshore wind turbine details
The Changhua-1 and Changhua-2 offshore wind farms will be equipped with a total of 112 SG 8.0-167 DD turbines from Siemens Gamesa.
Each of the Siemens Gamesa three-bladed, pitch-regulated, direct-drive offshore turbines will have a rated capacity of 8MW.
With a 167m-diameter rotor and 81.5m-long aerodynamic blades, each turbine has a swept area of 21,900m².
The turbines are also equipped with sensors that transmit data to the Siemens Gamesa Diagnostic Centre for timely detection of defects and failures.
Danish offshore wind developer Orsted had received the environmental impact assessment approval for all four Greater Changhua wind projects in February 2018 and was awarded the right to connect 900MW capacity from the Greater Changhua offshore wind projects to Taiwan’s power grid in April 2018.