Active contribution to the energy transition: Dillinger subsidiary Steelwind Nordenham to supply Yunlin offshore wind farm

The energy transition is being built on steel — and Dillinger steel is once again playing a key role: Steelwind Nordenham, a wholly owned subsidiary of Dillinger, will supply 40 complete monopiles for the construction of the Yunlin offshore wind farm off the west coast of Taiwan, as well as 120 sections that will later be used locally by the Formosa Heavy Industries Corporation (FHI) to assemble another 40 monopiles. The input material – heavy plate in the required grades and dimensions – will come from Dillinger or its subsidiary Dillinger France in Dunkirk.

“This order makes a sustainable contribution to the generation of renewable energies and ensures capacity utilization at the Nordenham site for an entire year," said Dr. Ralf Hubo, Managing Director of Steelwind Nordenham, when the final contracts were concluded. Production for the order will start in July; the last monopiles will leave the plant in early June 2020. The journey by ship from Nordenham to Mailiao, the port of destination in Taiwan, takes about 45 days.

The Yunlin offshore wind park will be built 8 kilometers off the west coast of Taiwan with 80 Siemens 8 MW turbines, at water depths ranging from 8.5 to 38 meters. Some of the monopiles used (“beyond XXL”) not only have the largest diameter in the world, at 10 meters at their lower end, but also a record-setting weight: due to the soil conditions they must be very long (60 to 98 meters) and therefore very heavy. With a maximum individual weight of 1,870 metric tons, they are the heaviest in the world.

About Steelwind Nordenham

Steelwind Nordenham GmbH is a wholly owned subsidiary of Dillinger that operates a plant in Nordenham to produce foundations for offshore wind farms (monopiles, “beyond XXL” monopiles and transition pieces). The heavy plate steel is supplied in the required grades and dimensions by Dillinger and its subsidiary Dillinger France in Dunkirk. Monopile foundation systems are cost-effective foundation systems whose support structure is assembled using heavy plate in thicknesses up to 150 mm. “Beyond XXL” monopiles have diameters of up to 11 meters, unit weights of up to 2,400 metric tons and lengths of up to 120 meters.