Engineering services provider ALE has formed a new joint venture with Giant Taiwan to provide onshore handling, transportation and storage of wind turbine foundations for the second phase of Taiwan’s Formosa 1 offshore wind project.
With the awarded contract being vast, ALE and Giant claim to have overcome several major logistical, engineering and civil infrastructure challenges needed for the installation work to begin.
Key phases of the project included transportation and loading multiple monopoles from their point of fabrication in Rostock, Germany, the development of earthquake-resilient storage facilities at the Port of Taichung, Taiwan and the load-in of both monopoles and transition pieces to the wind farm’s location.
Currently, the items are in the process of installation by the offshore vessel Seaway Yudin. The work is claimed to be helping the Taiwanese Government move towards energy independence, with a target of generating 5.5GW of clean energy generation by 2025. The total project is expected to take up eight months of duration.
ALE Global Strategic Sales director Yannick Sel said: “This is truly a winning combination in which ALE brings its knowledge built up in the offshore wind industry in Europe and Giant complements it with valuable local connections and expertise.”
Formosa 1 Phase 2 will have a capacity of 120MW
The present phase will see 20 additional turbines being installed 6km off the Miaoli County in the Taiwan Strait, which will increase the power generation capacity from the current 8MW to 120MW.
ALE Taiwan director Chris Schraa said: “By establishing ALE – Giant we have fast tracked our localization and have been able to offer ALE’s world class services, safety and quality standards while being seen as a local partner from day one”
Earlier this month, Jan De Nul had installed the export cables at the wind farm. As part of the engineering, procurement, contract and installation contract for building the overall Balance of Plant, the company used its Cable Laying Vessel Willem de Vlamingh to install the 17 inter array and 3 export cables.
Last year, Siemens Gamesa was selected to supply turbines for the phase 2 of the wind farm, which include 20 of Siemens Gamesa’s SWT-6.0-154 Direct Drive wind turbines.
