Highlights of the Month – January 2018

Taiwan to Sign 5.5GW of Contracts with Offshore Wind Developers by July

Nine developers looking to build offshore wind farms in Taiwan have qualified for offshore environmental permits. These developers, offering 10.5GW of offshore wind capacity in total, will now compete for 5.5GW of offshore wind contracts, 3.5GW to be selected for the feed-in-tariff (FIT) and the rest to be awarded at an auction in May.

First Siemens Gamesa Offshore Nacelle Born in Cuxhaven

Siemens Gamesa has completed the assembly of the first wind turbine nacelle in its offshore factory in Cuxhaven, Germany.

Ørsted Continues Offshore Wind Support in Taiwan

Ørsted has signed four Memorandums of Understanding (MoU) in Taiwan in order to continue exchanging knowledge on offshore wind and developing the industry.

HORIZONS – Next Generation Wind Turbines

Following multiple not yet realised 10MW+ concept plans, there is already much wind industry talk about the next-generation 12-15 MW turbines. The question is whether especially new concepts in the latter category will be mainly evolutionary scaling of current technology, or a radical departure to new concept solutions. Learn about offshore wind turbines in the first Offshore WIND and DOB Academy co-production: HORIZONS.

States Respond to Trump’s New Oil & Gas Plan. Shell, Statoil Interested in New Areas

As the Trump Administration issued the draft proposal for the 2019-2024 National Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) Oil and Gas Leasing Program on 4 January, the move to make more than 90% of OCS available for oil and gas exploration and production saw opposition from several U.S. coastal states, including those that want more renewable energy in their future.

Photo of the Day: Siemens OTM Jacket Gears Up for Beatrice

The jacket foundation for a Siemens Offshore Transformer Module (OTM) has been loaded onto a barge destined for the Beatrice offshore wind farm, after undergoing final preparations at BiFab’s yard in Fife, Scotland.

Kriegers Flak Foundations Arrive in Denmark

A barge loaded with two gravity-based foundations (GBFs) for the high voltage station of the 605MW Kriegers Flak offshore wind farm has arrived in Køge, Denmark, Blue Water Shipping (BWS), the port agents for the project, told Offshore WIND.

Game Not Over for Seawind

Following reports in Norwegian media about wind energy technology developer Seawind filing for bankruptcy, Offshore WIND spoke with the company’s director for the Netherlands, Kees van de Kerk, who pointed out that only the company in Norway is affected by this and that Seawind is now working on resolving the situation to enable moving forward with the demonstration project.

First Monopile Installed at Hornsea Project One Site

GeoSea’s installation vessel Innovation has installed the first of 174 monopiles at the Hornsea Project One site in the UK and thus marked the beginning of offshore construction of what will become the world’s biggest wind farm.

ST3 Offshore Dodges Bankruptcy, Starts Restructuring Programme

Polish offshore wind foundations manufacturer ST3 Offshore has withdrawn the bankruptcy petition after receiving positive feedback from a District Court on its application to open restructuring proceedings.