The cranes will be mounted on transition pieces in the building yard in Shanghai and then delivered to Taiwan, where they will be installed in a final step at the offshore wind farm Formosa 1 OWF Phase 1.
Formosa 1 is located five kilometres off the Chunan coast in Miaoli County and is designed to have 30 wind turbines with a capacity of 108 MW in water 5 – 30m deep. Formosa 1 OWF Phase 1 is a pilot project with two turbines and a project capacity of 8 MW.
Palfinger Marine expects the Taiwanese offshore wind sector to grow over the coming years.
“Because of limited land space, the build-up of onshore wind farms is declining. Due to the Taiwanese government’s goal to reach the target of 3 GW wind power by 2025 and the enormous potential of offshore wind, Taiwan is faced with a great opportunity here to increase the share of renewable energy in power supply,” the company said.
It explained that because of the downturn in the oil and gas market, many shipyards are searching for alternatives and see great potential in the offshore wind market.
Palfinger Marine customers such as Strategic Marine in Singapore and Vietnam, and Piriou in Vietnam recently placed orders for 18 foldable knuckle boom cranes for wind farm supply and service vessels that are intended to operate at the European offshore wind farms.
