Taiwan awards 900MW grid capacity for Changhua 1 and 2

Taiwan’s Ministry of Economic Affairs has awarded Ørsted the right to connect 900MW of offshore wind capacity to Taiwan’s power grid.

It includes Changhua 1, which has a capacity of 605MW and grid connection in 2021, and Changhua 2, which has a capacity of 295MW and grid connection in 2021.

The next step for the projects, which are located in the Taiwan Strait off Changhua County, is to obtain the establishment permit and to secure the feed-in-tariff by signing a power purchase agreement with Taipower.

Ørsted has obtained site exclusivity on four offshore wind sites located between 35 kilometres and 60 kilometres from the shore of Changhua County. The four sites, which have a total potential capacity of 2.4GW, received environmental impact assessment approvals in February.

The remaining 1.5GW allocated across three projects can participate in future auction rounds.

Ørsted’s four Greater Changhua offshore wind farms could power 2.8 million Taiwanese homes.

Ørsted is also the co-owner of Taiwan’s first commercial-scale offshore wind project, Formosa 1.

Subject to the owners’ final investment decision, Formosa 1 will be extended from its current 8MW capacity to 128MW in 2019.