Taiwanese geotechnical vessel under conversion to prep for local offshore wind market

Taiwanese offshore geophysical and geotechnical investigation company PDE Offshore Corporation is carrying out the conversion of its new geotechnical vessel to service the local offshore wind market.

The Geo Power geotechnical vessel is now under conversion work and will join the fleet in mid-2024 to provide both seabed and downhole cone penetration testing services.

PDE Offshore upgraded the underwater acoustic positioning system onboard the vessel to Sonardyne’s Ranger 2 USBL system with the aim of further enhancing its capability in the exploration of offshore renewable energy (ORE) in Taiwan.

“We have been working with Sonardyne since 2017 using their Mini Ranger 2 system. The system is proven, reliable and our engineers are familiar with its operation. It was a simple and logical choice to go ahead and upgrade to the Ranger 2 system to improve our capability to take on greater projects in the region,” said Huang Hsin-chih, President of PDE Offshore.

The Ranger 2 system can be used to track anything in any depth from any vessel and can track a subsea asset, position or communicate with an underwater vehicle, dynamically position a vessel – or do all this simultaneously, Sonardyne said, adding that it can be used for both survey and construction phases of ORE projects and supports complex tracking scenarios such as structures and vehicles with multiple transponders and multiple remote offsets.

Dan Tan, Regional Sales Manager for Sonardyne in Singapore, said: “Taiwan’s ambitions of becoming a green island means it is fast becoming a leading player offshore wind in Asia Pacific. We’re pleased to be a part this energy transition through PDE Offshore’s continued confidence and investment in our products. We look forward to supporting them in their future operations.”