Heerema Marine Contractor’s heavy lift vessel Aegir has set the two topside modules at Ørsted’s Greater Changhua 1 & 2a offshore wind farm in the Taiwan Straits on their foundations. The topside modules have a combined weight of more than 8000 metric tons. 

Ørsted Asia Pacific, general manager Taiwan, Christy Wang noted that the two substations have been integrated with the jacket foundations over a two-day operation. Heerema secured the job for the Changhua projects in 2019 from Jan De Nul.

The two structures were built by Keppel Offshore & Marine’s yard in Singapore, loaded out and delivered by Boskalis’ Mighty Servant 3 to the Taiwan Straits at the start of November.

Located 35-60 km off the coast of Changhua County, the first large-scale and far shore offshore wind farm in Taiwan is scheduled to be finalised by 2022 and will have a 900 MW capacity. Keppel Offshore & Marine has completed the construction of two offshore substations for Ørsted at the end of September. Keppel O&M completed the construction of the jacket foundations earlier in the second quarter of 2021 and has taken part in the integration work for the offshore substations.

After integration of the topside modules onto the jacket foundations, Keppel O&M will conduct testing of the substation systems within its scope. Expected to withstand the sea and extreme weather conditions at the site, the offshore substations will distribute the energy generated from the offshore wind farm to the onshore substation via subsea cables.