Orsted announced today (21st) that the first wind turbine for the 1st phase of the Greater Changhua Offshore Wind Farm has been successfully installed and started to generate power.
The first phase of the Greater Changhua Southeast and Southwest Offshore Wind Farm is Orsted’s first and largest offshore wind farm in Asia-Pacific, of which the first phase of the Greater Changhua Southwest Wins Farm is situated at 35-60km off the coast of Changhua. The first phase has a total installed capacity of 900MW, and is the only offshore wind farm in Taiwan that has the largest scale. The wind farm, upon completion in construction in the future, would be able to provide a significant level of clean energy that will assist Taiwan in accelerating energy transformation and supporting transformation among local industries, so as to march towards the sustainable target of 2050 in net zero emission.
Orsted has now installed the first wind turbine, with successful power generation, for the first phase of the Greater Changhua Southwest Offshore Wind Farm, where power is transmitted to the offshore substation for step up through array cables, before transmitting to Orsted’s substation at the Changhua Coastal Industrial Park through export cables. The first phase of the Greater Changhua Southeast and Southwest Offshore Wind Farm will be installed with 111 units of Siemens Gamesa’s SG 8.0-167DD wind turbines, which will be connected to TPC’s Changyi Switching Station, where transmission and distribution through TPC’s grid would provide clean electricity to approximately one million households in Taiwan.
Christy Wang, General Manager of Orsted Taiwan, commented, “It is of great importance to both Orsted and Taiwan that our wind farm team was able to generate power for the first time according to the scheduled timeframe. The Orsted team, since being selected for the first phase of the 900MW Greater Changhua Southeast and Southeast Offshore Wind Farm since April 2018, has been fully engaged in the development and construction of wind farm engineering, and it took less than four years from receiving allocated capacity to the first time of power generation. Such speed can now regarded as a new milestone for the industry.”
Wang pointed out that offshore construction was severely challenged for the past two years due to related restrictions under the COVID-19 pandemic. Ulrik Lange, Co-CEO for the first phase of the Greater Changhua Southeast and Southwest Offshore Wind Farm, commented that the risk management for the manufacturing, delivery, and installation of essential parts for offshore wind farms, as well as flexible dispatching for personnel and ships, under the challenges derived from the pandemic, are critical to the scheduled completion of wind farms.
(Cover photo source: Orsted)
