Danish offshore wind energy giant Ørsted announced at the end of April that it had finally taken the Final Investment Decision (FID) on the Changhua 1 and 2a offshore wind farms in Taiwan after several months of delay caused by the country’s indecision and delays regarding the Feed-in Tariff for offshore wind.
Taiwan’s Ministry of Economic Affairs has finally announced the 2019 Feed-in Tariff (FiT) for offshore wind projects revealing new numbers which, though not what the industry would have preferred, is nevertheless not as bad as was originally feared.
In a blow to the immediate future of offshore wind in Taiwan, Danish power company Ørsted has suspended development of its local projects following delays imposed by the Taiwanese Government’s failure to issue a Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) under 2018’s Feed-in Tariff (FiT) rate.
Taiwan’s Bureau of Energy had not issued an establishment permit in time for the 900 megawatt (MW) Changhua 1 and 2a projects, which had been awarded to the company by Taiwan’s Ministry of Economic Affairs in April of 2018, meaning that Ørsted was unable to sign a 2018 Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) with Taiwanese utility Taipower.
As Taiwan emerges as the next power base for the offshore wind industry, we look at what makes the country so appealing and what the future really looks like.
Danish wind energy giant Ørsted has been awarded the right to connect 900 megawatts (MW) of offshore wind capacity to Taiwan’s power grid from the company’s Changhua offshore sites in a move which will deliver the first large-scale commercial offshore wind projects in the Changhua region.
