The COVID-19 pandemic over recent years has impacted the construction progress of offshore wind farms around the world. With that being said, Taiwan, after completing 43 wind turbines for the first phase of the demonstration project at the end of 2021, had fully concluded construction and parallel connection for all 47 wind turbines of Formosa 2, the third offshore wind farm in Taiwan, on March 21st. The offshore wind farm will now join in on the generation of green electricity.
Formosa 2 is an offshore wind farm jointly invested by JERA (49%), Macquarie Group (26%), and SRE (25%), and consists of 47 wind turbines at 8MW each that combine to 376MW in total installed capacity, providing clean wind energy for about 380K households each year.
Maritime engineering for offshore wind power is often much more complex compared to that of onshore wind power. First, one must overcome the offshore working environment, where operators are required to operate cranes on undulating ships, which must return to the port immediately during strong wind and waves. Second, wind turbine components and underwater foundations can weigh several thousands of tons, and must be meticulously arranged for transportation from ports to the site of wind farms, as well as assembly, installations, and constructions, in order to avoid severe differentiation in installations.
As pointed out by the Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA), not only can the public see the first offshore wind farm in Taiwan, which consists of single-pile wind turbines for Formosa 1, when standing at the Longfeng Fishing Port or cycling through the Zhunan Green Light Sea Breeze-Bicycle Path, but also overlook the jacket wind turbines of Formosa 2, where the installed capacity of a single wind turbine has risen from 4MW (2 units) and 6MW (20 units) during the demonstration phase to 8MW (47 units) for the stage of potential site.
As for JERA’s announcement on selling 44% of its shares from Formosa 3, MOEA explained on 24th that individual companies should be respected for their respective financial plans, and that Taiwan continues to welcome foreign investment in offshore wind power from major suppliers around the world.
(Cover photo source: MOEA)
