Wärtsilä thrusters for offshore wind vessels
The technology group will supply the steerable and tunnel thrusters for two new wind farm turbine installation vessels being built for the China Three Gorges Corporation (CTGC), a China state-owned power company.
These orders were placed by CSSC Huangpu Wenchong Shipbuilding Co, the yard building a 2000t wind turbine installation vessel (WTIV), and by China Merchants Heavy Industry (Jiangsu) Co, the yard building a 3000t heavy lift vessel.
“We are proud to have been awarded the contracts for these new vessels,” said Lauri Tiainen, product director thrusters & propulsion, Wärtsilä Marine Power. “As with all Wärtsilä products and solutions, our thrusters are designed to ensure optimal efficiency, high hydrodynamic performance, less maintenance, and better accessibility for servicing.”
Less energy consumption
Each of the vessels will have an optimised thruster configuration consisting of WST-32FP main propulsion units and relevant WTT transverse thruster sizes. The design of the thrusters features high redundancy for less energy consumption, and solid reliability. The thrusters also comply with applicable environmental regulations with the use of Environmentally Acceptable Lubricants (EAL).
The weight of onboard equipment is an important consideration for jack-up vessels, and the compact Wärtsilä thruster package saves weight without compromising performance.
China is expected to boost its offshore wind power generation capacity to 50GW by the end of 2029.
“Wind power is becoming increasingly important for China, and we are building these two ships on a fast-track schedule to support this programme,” said Wang Peng, project manager at China Three Gorges Corporation.
