Recently, Shanghai Zhenhua Port Machinery (Group) Co. (ZPMC) completed the keel laying of 3500 tons self-propelled jack-up offshore wind power installation platform. This platform features the largest lifting capacity and the strongest comprehensive operation capability among the same type in the world, which will be another weapon for China’s new energy capacity export and sustainable development of the industry.
To install the wind turbine of more than 100 meters high and 1,000 tons heavy into the sea, it is necessary to rely on the special construction equipment of jack-up wind power installation platform. The large-scale wind turbine is an inevitable move for reducing cost and increasing efficiency after China’s offshore wind power enters the era of parity price, and the water depth of the wind farm will develop to more than 50 meters, which prompts us to continue to independently research and develop wind power installation platforms with larger lifting weights and higher lifting heights.
The 3,500 tons wind power installation platform independently developed by ZPMC with the functions of transporting, piling and lifting of 20 MW wind turbines can meet the needs of deep-sea integrated offshore wind power construction operations.
The platform is highly forward-looking with many design highlights, such as larger lifting weight, longer pile legs and faster hooking speed.
The main crane adopts double main hook design, with No. 1 main hook lifting up to 3,500 tons and No. 2 main hook lifting up to 1,200 tons, which can complete the self-turning of 3,500 tons of monopile foundations without any additional auxiliary equipment.
Equipped with a secondary hook of 1,200 tons, which is comparable to the main hook capacity of many wind power platforms today, and the lifting of the nacelle of a 20 MW wind turbine can be easily completed by the secondary hook alone. The secondary hook can be lifted twice as fast as the main hook, so that the efficiency of wind power installation can be greatly improved.
In addition, the pile legs of the platform are 136 meters long with 280 square meters of pile boots, breaking the record of 130 meters of pile legs length among the platforms of the same type, which can be adapted to the requirements of wind field construction in the deep-sea of water depth and soft geology, and the application scenario is more extensive.
In order to adapt to the demand of larger lifting weight, it becomes the first wind power installation platform in China that adopts 8-layer lifting mechanism. The platform is also equipped with the first domestically produced 3,000-kilowatt telescopic thruster, which can exert a 360-degree all-around thrust to improve positioning capability.
This platform will be the first wind power installation platform equipped with domestic DP-2 power positioning control system.
In order to make the platform more adaptable to the construction needs of the rough sea conditions in the deep-sea, ZPMC independently researched and developed the domestic DP-2 power positioning control system, which has the functions of high-accuracy auto-positioning, auto-bowing and auto-tracking, etc., and to open up the last kilometer of the application on the actual ship to fill the gap in China.