Title: Offshore Wind Development in China and Recent Challenges
Mr. Mathias Steck
Senior Vice President
GL Garrad Hassan
China
Abstract
China’s target stated in the 12th Five Year Plan to install 5 GW of Offshore Wind Energy by the end of 2015 might seem
more than a challenge to achieve from today’s perspective. However the horizon for Offshore Wind looks positive in
China with the Chinese industry now pushing forward to make progress. Having gained their first experience in early
starter projects like Donghai Bridge (Shanghai) and Rudong (Jiangsu Province) the Chinese Design and Engineering
institutes together with the project developers have developed good awareness of the challenges of Offshore Wind in
Chinese waters and some of them are already working on specialized solutions for their projects. GL Garrad Hassan has
been engaged by some of these institutes and developers to help in assuring best practices and quality; and to accelerate
the solution finding process. Compared to Europe the project schedules are even more demanding – hence the resulting
risk from a time constrained planning process must be mitigated. A number of institutes and developers are hence taking
the wise step to pull in experience from outside China to avoid earlier mistakes made elsewhere in the world and arrive at
the best solution tailored to the local Chinese conditions. As an introduction the presentation will summarize the
challenges of Offshore Wind in general and provide a snapshot of where the Chinese Offshore Wind Industry currently
lies. The main part of the presentation will focus on the special technical challenges for Offshore Wind in Chinese waters
and provide clues of where to look in detail to maintain technical integrity and avoid problems in the construction and
operational phases of the projects.
Biography
Mr. Steck is a Senior Vice President of GL Garrad Hassan and is the Regional Manager of GL Garrad Hassan Asia
Pacific. This position involves managing a team of over 80 Inspectors and Engineers specialising in wind energy located
in offices in China, India, Australia, Korea, Japan, Singapore, Thailand and New Zealand. Mathias is based in Shanghai,
China and has 10 years of experience in the wind turbine industry.
Mathias joined Germanischer Lloyd in 2003 in the Wind Energy group. Since then he was involved in a wide range of
tasks as an expert in charge of structural components for wind turbines including reviews, inspections, expert opinions,
failure analysis, and technical due diligence, guideline development and technical seminars. Mathias’ specialist areas are
the computation of wind turbine foundations and towers as well as the development of calculation tools and Finite
Element models for several wind turbine components and offshore wind substructures.
Mathias also worked as Project Manager for certification services and an advisor for customers in India, China, USA,
Japan, Korea and Europe. In 2008 he took on the role of Head of the Civil Engineering Group and then the Department
Head of Renewable Energy Asia where he began building the GL engineering teams in India and China, later spreading
out to other Asian countries.
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