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Taiwan Holds First Major Offshore Wind Auction

offshore wind turbines

Published Apr 30, 2018 7:52 PM by The Maritime Executive

Taiwan announced the results of its first major offshore wind farm auction on Monday with Germany’s wpd awarded one GW of capacity and Ørsted 900MW. The nation aims to add 3.8GW of capacity to its existing network of just eight MW. 

As a result of the auction, Ørsted's 605MW Changhua 1 and 295MW Changhua 2 projects are expected to be operational in 2021. These will be the first large-scale commercial offshore wind projects in Taiwan's Changhua region and will connect 900MW into Changhua’s total available grid capacity of 1,000MW.

Ørsted has obtained site exclusivity on four offshore wind sites located between 35 and 60 kilometers (22 and 37 miles) from shore off Changhua County. The four sites, which have a total potential capacity of 2.4GW, received environmental impact assessment approvals in February 2018. 

Ørsted is also the co-owner of Taiwan’s first commercial-scale offshore wind project, Formosa 1. The company took final investment decision for the second phase of the Formosa 1 last week. The offshore wind farm is located in Chunan Town, Miaoli County on Taiwan's North-Western coast. The second phase will add 20 offshore wind turbines with a total capacity of 120MW to Formosa 1's current 8MW capacity. Formosa 1 will be the first commercial-scale offshore wind farm in Taiwan before 2020. 

Formosa 1 is a joint venture between Ørsted (35 percent ownership), Taiwanese developer Swancor Renewable (15 percent), and Macquarie Capital (50 percent). The project has signed a contract with Siemens Gamesa for 20 6MW turbines and a full-service agreement for 15 years. Additionally, Formosa 1 signed a contract with the Taiwanese company Fortune Electric for an upgrade of the existing onshore substation. 

Taiwan’s government has announced that it expects to auction up to 2GW of offshore wind capacity in June 2018, and this is expected to grow to 5.5GW by 2025 when nuclear power has been completely phased out.

Taiwan is not considering companies from China as it claims Taiwan as Chinese territory. According to a Reuters report, Chung-Hsien Chen, director of the energy technology division at Taiwan’s Bureau of Energy, said Chinese bids were excluded “due to concerns of national security.”