Fred Olsen Windcarrier won its first major deal in the Asian market after being picked to install the 8MW Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy (SGRE) turbines at the Yunlin offshore wind farm off Taiwan.
The Norwegian installation contractor will send one of its specialist vessels to Taiwan in 2020 to work on the 640MW project, which is being led by German developer Wpd.
The project, six kilometres off the southwest coast of Taiwan, will be completed in two phases next year and in 2021. SGRE was awarded the turbine order for Yunlin in 2018.
“The contract will continue to strengthen our relationship with SGRE. We are looking forward to bringing our European experience and capabilities to the project, working with the local supply chain in Taiwan,” said Martin Degen, commercial manager at Fred Olsen Windcarrier.
Taiwan is the most hotly anticipated offshore wind market in Asia but suffered a contretemps with offshore wind developers after it announced plans in November to make significant cuts in feed-in tariffs for renewables projects receiving power purchase agreements in the fiscal year 2019 – jeopardising localisation plans and green-field investment. A compromise deal was reached in January.
