SK oceanplant starts shipping offshore wind power foundations to Taiwan

SK oceanplant said Tuesday it has exported fixed offshore wind power foundations to Taiwan, the largest ever for any of the country’s offshore wind farms.

The Korean company delivered the first shipment of foundations, known as jackets, under a contract for Taiwan’s Hai Long project signed in August 2022. Production began in January 2023.

The jackets exported this time are the largest ever among those installed at Taiwan’s offshore wind farm complex to date, according to SK oceanplant.

Each jacket is expected to have a maximum height of 94 meters, roughly equivalent to a 30-floor apartment building, and weigh 2,200 tons, about eight times an A380 aircraft, the world’s largest double-decker plane.

Each unit is designed to accommodate a 14-megawatt offshore wind turbine.

The shipments will continue until the first half of next year.

“SK oceanplant has achieved remarkable performance and technological capabilities in the field of offshore wind power foundation manufacturing, which can be considered the starting point of offshore wind power generation,” said the company’s CEO, Lee Seung-chul.

SK oceanplant has a track record of bagging contracts for 193 jackets, totaling approximately 2 gigawatts in capacity globally, from the likes of Taiwan and Japan among others.

Global offshore wind power installation is projected to grow at an average annual rate of 31 percent until 2027, according to the Global Wind Energy Council.

BY SARAH CHEA [[email protected]]