Taiwan Green Power (TGP) has signed a deal with Japan-based Marubeni to jointly develop an offshore wind farm to the west of Changhua County, central Taiwan, according to Digitimes.
The project will have installation capacity of 600 megawatts at total investment of $2.96 billion, and has passed environmental impact assessment.
TGP will account for 50 percent of the total investment, Marubeni, 30 percent, and others — mainly Taiwan Cogeneration and Tien Li Offshore Wind Technology — the remaining 20 percent.
Recently, MHI Vestas signed Memorandums of Understanding (MoU) for offshore wind market with four prestigious Taiwanese companies: CSMC (towers), Tien Li (blade manufacturing), Swancor (composites/resins), and Formosa Plastics Corporation (materials for blade manufacturing).
Other investors in the Taiwan offshore wind market include DONG Energy, which in January 2017 invested in Taiwan’s first offshore wind farm, the 120-megawatt Formosa 1 project set to be developed by local company Swancor Renewable, and also supported by Macquarie Capital.
Recently, European wind power plant management specialist OutSmart joined forces with Taiwan Offshore Wind Farm Services Corp (TOWSC) to target the offshore market on the Asian island. The partners will offer an integrated digital power plant management system for offshore wind.
And Renewables Consulting Group completed formation of a business entity in Taiwan, The Renewables Consulting Group, including approvals with the Investment Commission of The Ministry of Economic Affairs, and other legal and regulatory steps required to do business in Taiwan.
Orsted signed its first manufacturing contract in Taiwan for a jacket foundation transition piece mock-up to be built by Century Wind Power. The structure is scheduled to be delivered in the second half of the year.
Also, Siemens Gamesa signed an MoU with local developer Swancor for the Formosa 2 offshore wind farm in Taiwan. The companies also agreed in an MoU to explore ways to develop more local content in the Taiwan offshore wind sector.
MAKE, a market intelligence company, states Taiwan leads a host of Asian markets that will see heavy investment in offshore wind development, according to WindTech International.
Offshore wind will comprise more than 25 percent of new capacity in Japan and South Korea over a 10-year period and a staggering 96 percent of new capacity for Taiwan.
Excluding China, the offshore sector in Asia will achieve a compounded annual growth rate of 45 percent over the period, averaging more than 1.7 gigawatts of new capacity per year from 2022 to 2027.
Recently, Taiwan raised its offshore wind power generation target from 3.5 gigawatts to 5.5 gigawatts by 2025, with total investment estimated at about $33.04 billion, according to Overseas Community Affairs Council, Republic of China (Taiwan). The increase in the offshore wind power was decided in early January when the Cabinet approved an amendment to the Renewable Energy Development Act.
The Ministry of Economic Affairs will select projects generating 0.5 gigawatts of power to be commissioned by 2020, 3 gigawatts of projects to become operational from 2021-2025 and 2 gigawatts of projects will be decided by auction.
