Offshore wind turbines in the waters off Taiwan. Taiwan’s Ministry of Economic Affairs has stated that it aims to generate 20% of renewable energy by the middle of this decade.
Billy HC Kwok | Bloomberg | Getty Images
A large-scale offshore wind farm in the waters off the coast of Taiwan has produced its first power, with project participants calling the news a “major milestone”.
In a statement on Thursday, Danish energy company Orsted said first power at the Greater Changhua 1 and 2A facility was delivered on schedule after the installation of its initial set of wind turbines.
The electricity was “transmitted to onshore substations in Ørsted via array cables, offshore substations and export cables. Renewable energy was fed into the national grid via the Taipur substation,” she said. Taipower is a state owned facility.
The Changhua 1 & 2a range is located 35 to 60 kilometers off the west coast of Taiwan, and Ørsted describes it as “Taiwan’s largest offshore wind farm”.
It will have a capacity of about 900 megawatts and will use 111 turbines from the renewable energy company Siemens Gamesa. Capacity refers to the maximum amount of electricity a facility can produce, not necessarily what it generates.
It is hoped that construction of the project will be completed this year. According to Ørsted, the facility will eventually generate enough power to meet the needs of one million households in Taiwan.
“The delivery of the first force as scheduled is a major milestone for both Orsted and Taiwan,” said Kristi Wang, general manager of Orsted Taiwan. “This has not been an easy task, especially with the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic over the past two years,” Wang later added.
Thursday’s announcement is a step forward for Taiwan’s offshore wind sector, but a report from the World Wind Energy Council, published in April, highlighted how things weren’t all easy.
“Taiwan should have consumed more than 1 gigawatt [gigawatt] of offshore wind power from three projects last year based on project COD [commercial operation date] The 2022 Global Wind report said the delay, GWEC said, was “primarily caused by disruption associated with COVID-19.”
In Asia, the GWEC report places Taiwan second only to China in terms of offshore wind installations planned in the near to medium term.
According to the trade association, China is set to add 39 GW of offshore wind over the next five years, with Taiwan set to install 6.6 GW. Vietnam, South Korea and Japan are expected to add 2.2, 1.7 and 1 gigawatts, respectively.
Taiwan’s Ministry of Economic Affairs has stated that it aims to generate 20% of renewable energy by the middle of this decade.
‘Aim of PV [photovoltaic] Installation is set at 20 GW by 2025, while offshore wind capacity is expected to exceed 5.7 GW,” Solar PV refers to a way to convert sunlight directly into electricity. Authorities in Taiwan also want natural gas to make up 50% of power generation in 2025.
Transforming Taiwan’s generational mix into one in which renewables have a bigger role is a big task. Citing data from the Ministry of Economic Affairs, Taiwan’s Foreign Trade Bureau says 44.69% of total power generation in 2021 came from coal burning.
The share of natural gas was 36.77%, nuclear energy 9.63% and renewable energy 5.94%. Fuel oil and pumped storage hydropower contributed 1.87% and 1.10%.