Ørsted, a major player in renewable energy, has chosen a local joint venture of Mammoet and Taiwanese Giant Heavy Machinery Services, known as Mammoet-Giant Taiwan, to provide support for the development of its Greater Changhua 2b and 4 offshore wind farms off Taiwan's coast.

The Greater Changhua 2b and 4 projects secured 920 MW of grid capacity in June 2018 as part of Taiwan's first competitive auction without mandatory local content requirements. After taking a final investment decision (FID) earlier this year, Ørsted plans to begin onshore construction in 2023, with the goal of completing both projects by the end of 2025.

The joint venture, Mammoet-Giant Taiwan, has been assigned to handle marshalling and lifting activities for 66 suction bucket jackets for the wind farms. As part of a turnkey service, Mammoet-Giant will manage the entire quayside scope, utilizing their 5,000-tonne capacity SK 350 ring crane.

The SK 350 crane will lift the 2,500-tonne suction bucket jackets directly from deck carriers to the quayside, and after temporary storage, back onto deck carriers for transportation and installation. This streamlined approach eliminates the need for vessel repositioning during offloading and loading operations, leading to reduced turnaround times at the port, lower costs, and time savings.

Mammoet has previously deployed its PTC200-DS ring crane to Taiwan for work on the Greater Changhua 1 and 2a Offshore Wind Farms. The SK crane range can also be powered electrically, with the world's largest SK 6000 currently under construction.

Chris Schraa, Managing Director of Mammoet Taiwan, expressed enthusiasm and honor at being awarded the contract for the Greater Changhua 2b and 4 projects. He emphasized Mammoet-Giant's commitment to delivering exceptional performance and contributing to the sustainable growth of Taiwan's renewable energy sector. The company's early engagement in engineering enables them to offer smarter and safer solutions, optimizing schedules and processes through direct communication with developers.

Taiwan's offshore wind development plan includes a three-stage strategy, with a target of 5.7GW of cumulative installed capacity by 2025 during the first two stages. The plan aims to build 1GW of resources annually from 2026 to 2035 in the third stage of development.