Jan de Nul has completed the installation of 20 monopile foundations and transition pieces being used in the expansion of Taiwan's Formasa 1 offshore wind farm from a generation capacity of 8MW to 128MW.

The Belgian contractor for the installation of the 120MW Formosa 1 (phase 2) extension used Seaway Heavy Lifting's Yudin installation vessel.

Formosa 1 is Taiwan's first offshore wind farm on a commercial scale.

The 20 steel monopiles being used in the expansion had recently been shipped from Rostock in Germany.

Weighing 1,200 tonnes apiece, the foundations for the project, sited 6km off Miaoli County in the Taiwan Strait, were transported by UK-Taiwanese joint venture ALE-Giant.

The contractor’s workscope ranged from the transportation and load-out of monopiles from fabricator EEW to construction of earthquake-resilient storage facilities at the Port of Taichung and load-in of both monopiles and transition pieces.

“By establishing ALE-Giant we have fast tracked our localisation and have been able to offer ALE’s services, safety and quality standards while being seen as a local partner from day one,” said ALE Taiwan director Chris Schraa.

Formosa 1 (phase 2) is is owned by Formosa I Wind Power Co. Ltd., a partnership of Ørsted(35%), JERA (32.5%), Macquarie Capital (25%) and Swancor Holding (7.5%), according to Jan de Nul.

The 6MW turbines for the project are being delivered by Siemens Gamesa.

Taiwan tendered 5.5GW of offshore wind in its first auctions, with a view to having lead-off project online by 2025, and, as Recharge reported today, is poised to unveil details of a new 5GW round after accelerating its schedule amid strong interest from foreign developers.