Ørsted Moves Ahead With Additional Offshore Wind Sites off Taiwan

Orsted's Formosa 1 project, the first offshore wind farm built in Taiwan (Orsted)

The Danish offshore wind developer Ørsted has taken a final investment decision to build the 920 MW Greater Changhua 2b and 4 offshore wind farms in Taiwan. These are among the four sites in the Taiwan Strait where Ørsted is developing 2.4 GW of offshore wind energy, all located about 20-30 nm off the coast of Changhua County, Taiwan.

The other two sites include the 900MW Greater Changhua 1 and 2a, whose construction begun in 2019 and commissioning of the wind farm’s last turbines is expected before end of this year. The Greater Changhua 1 hosts the world first pilot ReCoral concept by Ørsted, a project that sets out to discover whether offshore wind turbine foundations could provide an additional home where corals have the potential to flourish.

The 920 MW grid capacity of Greater Changhua 2b and 4 was awarded in June 2018 in Taiwan’s first competitive price-based auction, with no mandatory local content requirements.

Ørsted secured long-term revenues for the project by signing a corporate power purchase agreement (CPPA) in July 2020 with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Limited (TSMC), the largest contract of its kind in renewable energy.

According to Ørsted, the Greater Changhua 2b and 4 projects will be funded by capital provided by the company combined with debt capital sourced from the domestic Taiwanese market. The two offshore wind farms have already obtained all environmental impact assessment approvals.

The construction will begin this year and commissioning of the wind farms is expected in 2025.

“The sites’ investment decision demonstrates that Ørsted is primed and ready to build and operate large-scale offshore wind projects in Taiwan. We have full confidence that we will fulfill our commitments to the grid contract with the Taiwan authorities and the CPPA with TSMC,” said Per Mejnert Kristensen, President of Ørsted Asia Pacific.

Ørsted is also eyeing additional sites 20 nm off the coast of Taichung. The company is the biggest shareholder and co-owner of Taiwan’s first commercial-scale offshore wind project, Formosa 1, which was extended from a capacity of 8MW to 128 MW in 2019.