Taiwanese Offshore Wind Farm Generates First Power

The second phase of Formosa 1, Taiwan’s soon-to-be first commercial-scale offshore wind farm, produced first power this month.

The second phase of Formosa 1 will comprise 20 Siemens Gamesa 6MW offshore wind turbines, and it is expected to be fully operational within the next two months. 10 of the turbines have now been installed, and six of them have started generating power - marking the first step towards achieving the Taiwanese government’s ambitions of installing 5.7GW of offshore wind by 2025.

The Formosa 1 offshore wind farm includes two phases: two 4MW wind turbines were installed in October 2016 for the first phase and officially entered commercial operation in April 2017. Formosa 1 is located approximately two to six kilometers (one to four miles) off the coast of Miaoli County. The total power generation capacity for Formosa 1 is 128MW, enabling it to supply the energy for 128,000 Taiwanese households.

The Formosa 1 offshore wind farm is owned by Ørsted (35 percent), JERA (32.5 percent), Macquarie Capital (25 percent) and Swancor Renewable Energy (7.5 percent).

In addition to Formosa 1, Ørsted is developing four offshore wind sites in the Greater Changhua region. The four Greater Changhua projects, located 35 to 60 kilometers (20 to 40 miles) off the coast, have a maximum capacity of 2.4GW and are planned to be built from 2021 to 2025. In total, they could power 2.8 million Taiwanese homes.

It is Ørsted’s ambition to have installed a total offshore wind capacity of 11-12GW worldwide by 2025.