Flagship super-installer launched in China for global 'offshore wind grid parity era'
Industrial giants Huadian Heavy and Boqiang Heavy and shipyard CIMC Raffles sign up to build jack-up series able to handle up-to-20MW turbines for international projects
Construction of the first in a series of next-generation offshore wind farm installation vessels capable of handling turbines up to 20MW has moved ahead in Yantai, China with a landmark signing ceremony between industrial giants Huadian Heavy (HHI), Boqiang Heavy (BHI) and CIMC Raffles Offshore Engineering.
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The flagship 3060 jack-up, which features 120-metre-long legs making it able to work in water depths down to 65 metres, is slated to be delivered in the first quarter of 2023 from CIMC Raffles, a portside construction yard historically used to build offshore oil & gas platforms and vessels.
Kick-off of the vessel’s manufacture is expected to “lead to the launching of a number of high-end offshore wind power installation vessels suitable for various complex sea conditions around the world… providing practical solutions for ushering in the era of offshore wind grid parity”, said the partners, which also inked an initiative called the Green Industry Partnership (GIP) with a view to building a “new framework of offshore wind power cooperation” globally.
“As one of China’s important clean energy sources, the offshore wind power industry has a major impact on the achievement of the 3060 target [a reference to the Asian superpower’s 2030 and 2060 emissions reductions objectives]. The large-scale development of offshore wind power will inevitably reduce carbon emissions and is the only way to achieve the goal of carbon neutrality,” said the partners in a statement.
“China's offshore wind power industry is currently facing opportunities in having a huge market development space and challenges from cost, resources, returns and technology.
“At this critical moment in the domestic offshore wind power industry, CIMC Raffles, HHI and BHI, formally launched the GIP initiative, inviting the upstream and downstream of the offshore wind power supply chain partners to jointly help in achieving the national 3060 carbon target.”
Though of a size capable of handling turbines even larger than the 15MW class machines now in development around the world, the 3060 is foreseen transporting smaller models, with its deck-load able to accommodate for four 12MW nacelles and towers or eight sets of 8MW units, with installation using its 2,200-tonne crane.
CIMC Raffles told Recharge the new units’ design put the accent on “high-end, efficient, low cost” operations: “We hold definitely positive prospect for the WTIV of this high-end class demand in both Chinese and international offshore wind markets, however, CIMC believes the construction of WTIV at this class in China has irreplaceable advantages as to aspects of supply chain, cost, delivery schedule, etc.
“The construction in America will be super cost, taking [US utility] Dominion as an example that they ordered one similar WTIV from Keppel Brownsville yard [for use construction a giga-scale project off the state of Virginia] costing up to $500m,” it said.
“Korea and Southeast Asia may deliver in economical way but they do not have enough capacity nor capability. China is at the best moment right now with the enough shipyards capacity and full Chinese supply chain from design to final delivery.”
The jack-up’s design criteria, the partners underlined, “meets the requirements of China, Europe North Sea and Southeast Asia” and though lead-off assignments for the first 3060 are expected to be in domestic waters, if “offered [an] excellent lease contract from Europe, it is also workable for us to deploy this vessel in Europe soon after its delivery”.
CMIC Raffles said jack-up was the flagship and that the partners were “preparing well for kicking off another one in accordance with the market demand in Europe”.
The partners said they would be “actively invit[ing] domestic and foreign upstream and downstream companies” in offshore wind to joining the GIP, which would be “oriented to jointly launch diversified offshore wind grid parity solutions which consists of reducing [capital expenditure] and [operating expenditure] by technological innovation [along with] integrated development of offshore wind combined with hydrogen, fisheries, desalination, and PV to increase revenue [by] offtake arrangement.
“Through business model innovation and the large-scale development of industrial clusters to achieve a win-win situation to jointly promote the development of China's offshore wind power during the 14th Five-Year Plan period.”
Along with the HHI, BHI and CIMC Raffles, executives from SPIC Shandong, Shanghai Electric, GE Offshore Wind, CMIC Ocean En-Tech and ABS attended the signing ceremony.