Global offshore wind leader Ørsted announced today (13) the completion of the first pin piles batch totaling 112, accounting for around one third of the total pin piles needed for the 900MW Greater Changhua 1 & 2a Offshore Wind Farms.
These pin piles were made by both new Taiwan suppliers Century Wind Power (CWP) and Formosa Heavy Industries Corporation (FHI), as well as the existing German fabricator Erndtebrücker Eisenwerk GmbH & Co. KG. The pin piles will be transported to the Port of Taichung starting from the end of October to December and stored there until the foundation installation commences early next year.
Located 35 to 60 kilometers off the Changhua coastline, the 900MW Greater Changhua 1 & 2a Offshore Wind Farms will have wind turbines mounted on 111 Ørsted in-house designed jacket foundations tailored to meet the specific seabed and site conditions in Taiwan. Each jacket foundation will be fixed by three pin-piles that are driven into the seabed.
Each pin pile is designed to be nearly 4-meter in diameter and around 80-90 meters long and weighs approximately 400 ton with the length equal to the height of a 30-story building. For such large structures, the manufacturing tolerance is only a few millimeters, and therefore, it is not unusual that it can be quite a challenge for suppliers without any offshore wind manufacturing experience to achieve the technical requirements.
Christy Wang, General Manager of Ørsted Taiwan, says: “Ørsted is committed to utilizing maximum local capacity along with existing suppliers for pin piles. This is to ensure that the Greater Changhua 1 & 2a Offshore Wind Farms is completed on time and that the suppliers meet the highest Quality, Health, Safety and Environment (QHSE) standards.”
“We signed the contracts with new Taiwan suppliers in 2018 and 2019 so that they have sufficient lead time to prepare for the fabrication of the pin piles. Moreover, we have increased our assistance to our new market entrant suppliers, which included dispatching a foreign onsite technical expert team early on and providing support and guidance on regular basis. The plan is to shorten their learning curve and support suppliers in order to ramp up their high-leveled welding techniques and competence. Today we see superb progress working with these new suppliers with all the pin piles expected to be finished in early 2021.”
Lai Wen-hsiang, Chairman of Century Wind Group, says:” We are proud that the company is able to participate in such a large-scale and far-shore project like the Greater Changhua 1 & 2a Offshore Wind Farms. We are progressing very well in fabricating the pin piles for Ørsted. This partnership with Ørsted helped us ramp up our high-level welding competence to meet the highest QHSE standards in offshore wind. More importantly, this valuable experience has laid a solid foundation to grow and compete for other offshore wind projects in the future.”
Based on the current progress, all 333 pin piles will be delivered before the end of March 2021 according to project timeline and to ensure the on time, on quality and safe delivery of the Greater Changhua 1 & 2a Offshore Wind Farms.
