Danish renewables giant Orsted has brought online a duo of offshore wind farms in Taiwan that it claims are together the largest in the Asia Pacific.
With 900MW combined capacity, the 605MW Changhua 1 and 295MW 2a offshore wind farms are now fully operational and connected to the grid, said Orsted.
The developer said their inauguration on Thursday is a “major milestone” and the wind farms have doubled Taiwan’s offshore wind capacity.
“It took us eight years to turn the words 'energy transition' in our policy papers into actual wind farms in operation,” said Taiwan’s President Tsai Ing-wen, who attended an inauguration ceremony.
“Taiwan now has [the] Asia-Pacific’s largest offshore wind farm and our own offshore wind supply chain.”
Mads Nipper, CEO of Orsted, said Greater Changhua 1 and 2a are our “first gigawatt-scale offshore wind farms outside of Europe.”
“They’re also Taiwan’s first utility-scale far-shore wind farms and the largest of their kind in APAC, reaffirming Taiwan as the frontrunner in the region.”
Although described as the largest wind development in the Asia Pacific, the two Changhua developments appear to fall just short of this title. The Guangdong Shanwei Jiazi 1 & 2 wind farms in China were brought online in 2022 and together boast 903MW of capacity. Orsted was contacted for comment to clarify its claim.
Orsted began construction in 2021 and recently announced the successful installation of all 111 Siemens Gamesa SG 8.0-167 DD wind turbines, which are now supplying renewable energy to Taiwan’s electricity grid.
Greater Changhua 1 is co-owned by Orsted (50%) and Mercury Taiwan Holdings, a consortium of CDPQ, a global investment group, and Cathay PE, with a combined ownership stake of 50%. Greater Changhua 2a is 100% owned by Orsted.
Those two wind farms are part of the Orsted’s Greater Changhua offshore wind zone, which also comprises Greater Changhua 2b, Greater Changhua 3, and Greater Changhua 4, which are all at various stages of development.
The zone has a combined capacity of approximately 2.4GW, said Orsted.
