Orsted has contracted Sing Da Marine Structure Corp to supply 56 jacket foundations for the first 900MW phase of the Greater Changhua offshore wind complex off the coast of Taiwan.
Sing Da Marine, a subsidiary of China Steel Corp, will deliver the structures in 2020 and 2021.
It will extend facilities at Sing Da Harbour in Kaohsiung and have a new factory up and running in the first quarter of 2020 to deliver the contract.
Orsted president for Asia Pacific Matthias Bausenwein said: “Foundations are an essential part of building offshore wind power plants in Taiwan, not least due to the extraordinary demanding site conditions in the Taiwan strait.
“For our Greater Changhua projects, we will have to use jacket foundations, weighing over 1100 tonnes and reaching a height of approximately 75 metres.
“We are very pleased to have found a strong partner who is capable of developing such skills and we look forward to executing our projects, jointly with SDMS, in a brand-new fabrication plant especially designed for manufacturing jacket foundations.
“Today’s contract is just a beginning of our long-term partnership since SDMS is considered as one of the preferred suppliers for our future projects which will be built in 2025.”
The deal is Orsted’s largest for jacket foundations and is subject to certain conditions such as the signing of a power purchase agreement by the end 2018 and the Danish company making a final investment decision, which is expected in March next year.
Offshore construction is expected to start in 2021 on the first 900MW of the Greater Changhua projects, which could reach up to 2.4GW across four sites in total.