Danish offshore firm Ørsted has taken the final investment decision (FID) on the Changhua 1 and 2a offshore wind farm in Taiwan. Located 35-50 kilometers off the coast of Changhua County, the wind farm will have a capacity of approximately 900MW, enough to supply around 1 million Taiwanese households with green power.
Prior to the FID, Taiwan’s Ministry of Economic Affairs approved Ørsted’s local supply chain plan, and subsequently Ørsted has signed a power purchase agreement (PPA) with Taipower at the feed-in-tariff level, announced on 30 January 2019.
The offshore wind farm will be constructed in 2021 and 2022.
After months of efforts and intensive collaboration, the company has now take the final investment decision on this landmark project, which will be Taiwan’s largest offshore wind farm and demonstrate offshore wind’s potential to decarbonize energy systems in Taiwan and the Asia-Pacific region, said Martin Neubert, Executive Vice President and CEO of Offshore at Ørsted.
With the Changhua 1 and 2a offshore wind farm, which is the first under the localization rules to take final investment decision, Ørsted will invest significantly in Taiwan’s transition to renewable energy with substantial impact on local job creation and industrial development. We are proud that we have secured a very high level of local content on the project, and we will start the initial onshore works already next month,
…added Matthias Bausenwein, President of Ørsted Asia-Pacific.
Taiwan awarded Ørsted the right to connect Changhua 1 and 2a to Taiwan’s power grid earlier in April.
Meanwhile, in June 2018, Ørsted was awarded the right to build another 920MW offshore wind in Taiwan through its Changhua 2b and 4 sites.