An investigation is underway at the 640MW Yunlin offshore wind farm off Taiwan after an “incident” during the installation of the project’s foundations.
“We only can confirm that an incident occurred during the (monopile) installation,” a WPD spokesmand said.
“The investigation into this is currently underway. We will await the results of these investigations before commenting on this,” the spokesman added.
Several media reports suggest that a monopile has fallen into the sea during installation.
Abu Dhabi’s National Petroleum Construction Company (NPCC) is contracted to install the monopiles.
NPPC, which is wholly owned by National Marine Dredging Company (NMDC), was awarded the contract in April by developer Yunneng Wind Power, two and a half months after Malaysian company Sapura Energy issued a termination notice to the developer in respect of another contract for the transportation and installation of monopiles for Yunlin.
At the time Sapura said the project was initially expected to be completed in September 2020, but completion was delayed to September 2023 “following unresolved technical and operational issues not attributable to Sapura Energy”.