Taiwan's first home-made giant offshore wind vessel gears up for action
WTIV underlines the shift toward more powerful vessels able to provide an integrated solution for transporting and installing supersized wind turbines
Taiwan’s Kaohsiung shipyard has delivered a high-capacity offshore wind installation vessel to Belgian contractor Deme, amid growing demand for vessels able to transport and install the increasingly large turbines for offshore wind.
The Green Jade is also the first WTIV to be built in Taiwan. It will be deployed by CDWE, a joint venture between Taiwanese shipbuilder CSBC and Deme Offshore for the installation of offshore wind farms there.
According to a Deme statement, the vessel can to transport multiple jackets and foundation components for the new generation of bigger wind turbines, and do so in a single shipment thus "significantly enhancing cost effectiveness”.
Taiwan's net-zero emissions goals include a plan to build 40GW to 55GW of offshore wind by 2050.
Deme said the new vessel has several contracts in the pipeline already and will initially be deployed for the installation of jacket foundations at the 298MW Zhong Neng project off the west coast of Taiwan, and is expected to move to the Northland-led Hai Long wind farm at a later stage to install a substation.
Zhong Neng is being developed at a water depth of around 25 metres by China Steel Corp (CSC) and Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners (CIP), with commercial operation due to begin in 2024.
The CDWE joint venture was formed in 2019 with the purpose of providing engineering, procurement, construction, and installation (EPCI) services in Taiwan’s offshore wind sector.
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