Jumbo Secures Unique Contract to Remove Offshore Wind Monopiles

Jumbo Offshore has secured a unique contract to remove wind turbine monopiles from the site of the future Yunlin Wind Farm, a 640 MW project in the Taiwan Strait.

Yunlin was scheduled to generate its first power in 2020, but its progress was disrupted by the pandemic. It is also reported to have encountered difficulties with monopile installation, with several piles slipping. The project's first monopile installation contractor, Sapura Energy, backed out in February 2022. The second, UAE-based NPCC, took over in April 2022. A third contracting consortium, Fred. Olsen/Shimizu, now holds a contract for the remaining monopile installation scope and is scheduled to start this quarter. 

As of early January, the project partners said that they have installed 45 out of 80 monopiles and completed 34 out of 80 turbines. 

Throughout the project, Jumbo has supported Yunlin's developers with heavy-lift capabilities. Beginning in 2021, Jumbo's fleet transported 40 monopiles, 120 monopile sections and 40 transition pieces to Taiwan - the largest contract in the company's history.

Courtesy Jumbo

As construction continues, Yunlin needs to remove some of the monopiles installed earlier in the project, and has awarded Jumbo a contract extension to cover this additional scope. The heavy lift vessel Fairplayer will take out monopiles that were installed during a previous phase.

To undertake this task, the vessel will be fitted with an underwater abrasive cutting and lifting tool and an ROV. Using this special-purpose rig, the monopiles will be cut into sections, hoisted on board and transported back to shore. According to Jumbo, the objective is to cut off the bottommost section of each monopile three meters below mean seabed level.  

“We are very proud to have been awarded this additional scope of work on the Yunlin OWF project. We see this as a confirmation that Jumbo’s values bring real benefit to our clients. With our client-centric approach, we aim to cooperate with our customers as a partner in all that we do, in order to offer a reliable service that inspires confidence," said Brian Boutkan, Manager Commerce at Jumbo Offshore.

Yunlin's developer is Yunneng Wind Energy, a joint venture of TotalEnergies, Skyborn Renewables, Thailand's Electricity Generating Public Co. (EGCO) and Sojitz Corp. Yunneng received government approval for a $3 billion debt restructuring plan in January, paving the way for completion of construction.