Glamox racks up four more offshore wind farm wins

True to form, Norwegian LED lighting vendor Glamox has won a flurry of contracts in the offshore wind sector, announcing four separate wins — two in Taiwan, one in South Korea, and one off the Virginia coast in the U.S., which is by far the largest of the locations.

The four jobs total over 4,000 luminaires to be installed over the next couple of years on nearly 300 turbines.

At each of the sites, Oslo-based Glamox is illuminating the maintenance area of turbine towers where vessels dock. That section, called the “transition piece,” is full of platforms, ladders, stairwells, gantries, and indoor areas. Transition pieces are typically fabricated on land and shipped to the offshore site. They sit in the middle of a turbine setup, attached below to a pile anchored to the seabed and above to the turbine tower.

In the largest of the deals, Glamox is providing 2,850 of its new Glamox MIR G2 WOF linear LED luminaires for use across 176 turbines at the Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind (CVOW) project, which is currently under construction 27 miles from Virginia Beach. It is scheduled for completion by the end of 2026 according to its developer Dominion Energy. CVOW will have a capacity of 2.6 gigawatts — enough for up to 660,000 homes — which should make it the largest offshore wind farm in the U.S.

Glamox began working on the CVOW project through Danish subcontractor and transition piece manufacturer Bladt Industries, now called CS WIND Offshore, which is also the name of the Seoul, South Korea company that acquired Bladt in 2023. 

The luminiares are the same ruggedized model that Glamox stress-tested recently by hurling one out of a helicopter.

“The lighting needs to be energy efficient and, crucially, must be able to cope with harsh, wet, and corrosive conditions,” said Mikkel Søndergaard, senior manager, project engineering for CS. “We demanded a secure, robust, and dependable product from a company with a track record in marine lighting as these luminaires must be able to survive the worst the Atlantic Ocean can throw at them.”

CS has subcontracted installation of the luminaires to Frederikshavn, Denmark–based Scanel International A/S.

Meanwhile, two of the three new Asian deals are in the Taiwan Strait between Taiwan and China.

One of those is Hai Long Offshore Wind Farm 2 and 3, scheduled to have an installed capacity of 1,044 megawatts when completed by 2026. Glamox is providing 468 linear TL60-1200 LED luminaires and 52 RLX80 floodlights to light 52 transition pieces at the sites, around 30 miles offshore. It is working with South Korean transition piece manufacturer SK Oceanplant, which anticipates installing lighting on the transition pieces by the middle of next year before shipping them to the location.

Also in the Taiwan Strait, Glamox is providing 636 MIR linear luminaires and 36 FL60 40W floodlights to light 36 transition pieces at Greater Changhua 2b and 4, roughly 22-to-37 miles off the Taiwan coast. The wind farm, under development by Denmark’s Ørsted, will have an installed capacity of 920 MW and is set for completion by the end of 2025. Glamox is working with South Korean subcontractor HSG Sungdong Shipbuilding, which expects to install the lighting at its yard by the third quarter of 2025.

In a project off the southwest coast of South Korea, Glamox is furnishing 170 linear MIR luminaires, 50 linear MIX luminaires, and 28 E20-S emergency lighting kits for 10 transition pieces at the Jeonman Phase 1 wind farm. It is working through South Korean contractor Hyundai Engineering & Steel Industries, which expects to install the lighting for the 99 MW operation by the first quarter of 2025.

Offshore and marine lighting have been a staple of Glamox’s business for decades, and remain an important growth area.

“We cut our offshore teeth in lighting North Sea oil and gas rigs in the 1980s and today we’re lighting the transition to offshore wind,” said Glamox CEO Astrid Simonsen Joos.

“The energy transition from offshore hydrocarbons to renewable power presents us with huge opportunities,” added Tommy Stranden, chief commercial and sales officer of Glamox’s Marine, Offshore & Wind business.

In another recent example, the company is providing 800 marine certified luminaires to a North Sea wind farm, by way of stops in The Netherlands, Poland, and Denmark. Marine sector wins over the last year have also included shipbuilders and ferry companies, among others.

CEO Simonsen Joos has articulated a longer-term goal of outfitting wind farms with sensors that help with operations such as adjusting the angle of blades.

MARK HALPER is a contributing editor for LEDs Magazine, and an energy, technology, and business journalist ([email protected]).

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