First pin piles for Taiwanese offshore wind farm loaded in South Korea

The first pin piles fabricated in South Korea for the Taiwan Power Company Offshore Windfarm Phase 1 Project – Demonstration have been loaded out for transport to Taiwan.

As previously reported, Edgen Murray, in collaboration with South Korea’s SeAH, completed the manufacturing of 80 pin piles for the project, also known as Changhua Phase 1, earlier this month.

The four remaining pin piles were ordered in Taiwan at the steel fabricator Ming Rong Yuan Business. These four pin piles are the very first Taiwan-made foundation components for the offshore wind farms in the country, Jan DE Nul said.

In total, seven batches of pin piles will be loaded at the South Korean yard managed by Edgen Murray on flat top barges pulled by ocean-going tugs. During the first load-out, the tug crew remained isolated from all operations near and on shore in order to avoid all risk of contamination with COVID-19.

For this overseas transport, Jan De Nul Group signed a contract with Hunghua Construction Co. Ltd. of Taiwan and Express Offshore Solutions Pte. Ltd. from Singapore.

Upon arrival in Taiwan, the 80 pin piles from South Korea will be custom cleared before travelling to their final destination approximately 8 kilometres off the coast of Fangyuan in Central Western Taiwan, where Jan De Nul Group is responsible for their installation.

The pin piles will be used to anchor the foundation jackets of the turbines to the seabed. Each jacket will be anchored by means of four pin piles.

The load-out and transport of the 21 jacket foundations will start next month, the consortium said. South Korea’s Samkang is manufacturing the jackets.

The consortium of Jan De Nul and Hitachi is developing the project on behalf of Taiwan Power Company.

Jan De Nul is responsible for the design, fabrication, and installation of the foundations, the installation of the wind turbines, the supply and installation of the onshore and offshore cables, as well as for the upgrading of the substation.

Hitachi is in charge of manufacturing, assembly, operation and maintenance, and other works related to the 5.2 MW offshore wind turbines with a downwind rotor.

The 109.2 MW Changhua Phase 1 wind farm is scheduled to be completed by the end of the year.