Wind turbine manufacturer Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy SA (SGRE) yesterday unveiled its nacelle assembly facility in Taichung — the Spanish company’s first outside Europe.
After Danish energy company Orsted A/S in June placed an order of wind turbines for its 900 megawatt (MW) wind farm project off the coast of Changhua County, SGRE decided to establish a nacelle assembly facility at the Port of Taichung, for which it leased 3 hectares from Taiwan International Ports Corp’s (TIPC, 台灣港務) Taichung branch.
A nacelle is a casing that houses all of the generating components in a wind turbine.
Photo: CNA
Construction of the facility, which would include an office and storage area, as well as serve as a nacelle testing center, is expected to be completed by the end of next year, SGRE said.
Production is expected to start by 2021, the company said.
TIPC said the facility would transform the port into an international hub for offshore wind supplies in the Asia-Pacific region, and provide more than 100 job opportunities.
Wind turbine towers for the greater Changhua project would be supplied by Chin Fong Machine Industrial Co (金豐機器) and South Korea’s CS Wind Corp.
Ching Fong and CS Wind last year formed a partnership to supply towers to Denmark-based wind turbine manufacturer MHI Vestas Offshore Wind A/S and German wind farm developer Wpd AG.
SGRE said it would produce the Asia-Pacific variant of its SG 8.0-167 DD offshore wind turbine at the Taichung facility, which is tailored to meet local standards regarding typhoons and seismic activitiy, and can operate in high and low ambient temperatures.
The Taichung facility would provide an opportunity for the company to reach other markets in the Asia-Pacific region, said Niels Steenberg, executive general manager of SGRE for Offshore Asia-Pacific.
SGRE provided two wind turbines for the first phase of Formosa I, Taiwan’s first offshore wind farm project, and last week revealed the first six wind turbines commissioned in the second phase of the 128MW project.
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