Offshore wind developer Hexicon has appointed China’s Mingyang Smart Energy as preferred wind turbine supplier for its ‘steppingstone’ floating wind project in the UK
The project, TwinHub, is the first offshore wind project in the Celtic Sea, and the first floating wind project to receive a contract for difference (CfD).
The TwinHub project secured a CfD for 15 years of revenue support in the UK Government’s Allocation Round 4 (AR4) in July 2022.
The 32-MW project is due to be commissioned and exporting clean power between 2025 and 2027.
Hexicon chief executive Marcus Thor said, “Strong, lasting collaboration with a major wind turbine OEM is essential in any offshore wind project and even more important when you are a first mover in the floating wind segment.
“Mingyang is clearly a world-class organisation with an impressive record in offshore wind and is making significant inroads into fixed and floating offshore wind around the globe. We are pleased to be enlisting their experience to deliver our project.”
The TwinHub project will use Hexicon’s TwinWind floating foundation technology which will allow two of Mingyang’s MySE 8.0-180 turbines to be placed on a single foundation, enabling more energy to be generated in a given sea area while reducing the environmental impact compared with a single foundation.
Hexicon said its successful bid in AR4 “fully leveraged the advantages of our technology, while benefiting from the site’s pre-existing electrical export infrastructure.”
Mingyang Europe general manager Dr Wei Chen said, “Mingyang is delighted to engage in such a special project with Hexicon. We have a shared vision of improving the economics of floating wind through innovation. TwinHub will highlight our capabilities in offering robust and versatile offshore solutions in one of the global hotspots for floating wind. It will be a great step forward for our future business in the UK and Europe.”
Riviera Maritime Media has a comprehensive conference programme for the rest of 2022 and will provide free technical and operational webinars in 2023.
