Offshore engineering consultancy Gavin and Doherty Geosolutions (GDG) has been appointed to support the Hai Long offshore wind farm off the coast of Taiwan.
GDG will provide geotechnical and geophysical owners engineering services on the Hai Long 2 and 3 projects, which will have a combined output of up to 1044MW.
The consultancy will support the project developers, including Canadian independent power producer Northland Power, Yushan Energy and Mitsui & Co.
The consortium is developing Hai Long 2 and 3 in zones 18 and 19, located off the coast of Changhua. The 300MW Hai Long 2 project will use Siemens Gamesa turbines.
GDG’s services for the project include geotechnical strategy support, as well as managing the site investigation, including local operational support, client representatives, ground and modelling and owners engineering substructure design and other “key interfaces”.
The development activities are on a progressive timeline with installation planned for 2023.
Deputy balance of plant package manager and foundation engineering, procurement and construction package manager for Hai Long Alex Patrascu said: “Our collaboration with GDG brings a depth of expertise and technical capability into the project team through the owners engineer role.
“The project team is now bolstered with GDG’s extensive engineering ability, which will help de-risk the project, bring additional certainty to critical areas and hopefully help drive down costs. We look forward to continuing our working relationship with GDG in the months and years ahead as the project advances through the survey campaigns and moves into design, fabrication and installation.”
Site investigations comprise final geotechnical campaigns for the turbine locations, geophysical and geotechnical campaigns to support cable engineering as well as specialist surveys for other aspects of the project.
GDG managing director and co-founder Paul Doherty said: “We are delighted to be involved in such a prestigious project that could deliver a gigawatt of renewable energy to help power Taiwan in the near future.
“The Changhua area of Taiwan is known to be technically challenging with specific issues such as earthquake induced liquefaction, typhoons, and a developing supply chain all requiring detailed consideration.
“This type of project is very well suited to GDGs’ expertise in providing technical support and engineering services for complex environments. Furthermore, we are confident that by working collaboratively with Northland Power and the wider Hai Long team, this project will be delivered in an optimised and efficient manner.”