In recent years, the COVID-19 pandemic has affected the construction progress of offshore wind projects around the world; nonetheless, Taiwan's offshore wind industry continues to work closely with the public sector to complete the first phase of the Demonstration Incentive Program with 43 wind turbines installed by the end of 2021. On March 21, 2023, Formosa 2, the third offshore wind farm (OWF), has completed the construction and grid integration of 47 wind turbines and joined green energy generation.
The Formosa 2 OWF project is jointly developed by JERA (49%), Macquarie's Green Investment Group (26%) and Synera Renewable Energy (25%). Upon completion, the wind farm has 47 wind turbines (8MW each) with total installed capacity of 376 MW, and is capable of supplying clean wind power to approximately 380,000 households every year.
Offshore wind marine engineering is extremely more complicated than onshore wind engineering. First, offshore working conditions must be overcome, as workers need to operate the crane on an installation vessel in strong waves, and the vessel must immediately return to the port when waves are getting stronger. Moreover, components of wind turbines and pin-piles weighing several thousand tons need to be transported from the port to the wind farm. On top of that, the assembly, installation and construction of wind turbines at the designated locations require precise arrangements to avoid severe discrepancy. Under the circumstances, local construction teams worked with foreign partners to overcome the harsh monsoon conditions during Taiwan's winter and eventually completed the construction of Formosa 2. Only those involved in the project understand the difficulties they have overcome.
From now on, if you stand at the Zhunan Longfeng Fishing Port or ride a bicycle on the Zhunan Green Light Sea Breeze Bicycle Path, you can see Taiwan's first OWF, Formosa 1, with monopile wind turbines and Formosa 2 that has jacket wind turbines. Unit capacities range from 2 units (4MW each) and 20 units (6MW each) in the Demonstration Incentive Program to 47 units (8MW each) in the Zones of Potential. These wind turbines are the perfect showcase of Taiwan's offshore wind power and driving force of sustainable green energy.
The Ministry of Economic Affairs would like to express our sincere gratitude to all offshore wind construction crew, developers and local manufacturers throughout the supply chain for their commitment and engagement. The public sector will work with the private sector to reach the goal of installing no less than 5.6GW of offshore wind by 2025 so to ensure stable electricity supply and satisfy domestic enterprises' green power demand in response to RE100 in the future. MOEA will expand the promotion of renewable energy, reducing air pollution and carbon emissions to achieve the goal of energy transition.
Spokesperson for Bureau of Energy, Ministry of Economic Affairs: Deputy Director-General, Chun-Li Lee
Phone: 02-2775-7700
Mobile: 0936-250-838
Email: chunlee@moeaboe.gov.tw
Business Contact: Director, Chung-Hsien Chen
Phone: 02-2775-7770
Mobile: 0919-998-339
Email: ctchen2@moeaboe.gov.tw