Heerema Marine Contractors’ heavy lift vessel Aegir has completed the installation of jacket foundations at the Greater Changhua 2a wind farm site offshore Taiwan and will now move on to do the same work on Greater Changhua 1, the company said via social media .
This brought the entire 900 MW Greater Changhua 1 & 2a project to having around half of the jacket foundations and over 60 per cent of the pin piles now in place, according to a social media update by Ørsted Taiwan’s Head of Communications, Rachel Chan.
Heerema Marine Contractors secured a contract for the transport and installation of turbine foundations and the installation of offshore substations at the Greater Changhua 1 and 2a offshore wind project in 2019.
The vessel Aegir finished the installation of the first wind turbine jacket foundation in August 2021 while the two substation topsides were completed three months later.
Located some 35 to 50 kilometres off the coast of Changhua County, the 900 MW project comprises the two substations and will feature 111 Siemens Gamesa 8 MW wind turbines, the first of which was installed this April.
Once operational by the end of this year, the Greater Changhua 1 & 2a will be Taiwan’s first far shore and large-scale offshore wind project.
The 295 MW Changhua 2a is solely owned by Ørsted, which is also in charge of developing both wind farms, while the 605 MW Greater Changhua 1 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).