Formosa I (海洋風電), Taiwan’s first offshore wind farm, is to begin commercial operations by the end of this year, according to Swancor Holding Co Ltd (上緯投控), one of the shareholders of the project.
Swancor chairman Robert Tsai (蔡朝陽) said that the phase 2 installation of 20 turbines about 6km off the Miaoli County coast has been completed and commercial operations would start by the end of this year after operating on a trial basis.
Twenty-two turbines have been installed for the Formosa 1 project. The first two, completed in phase 1 in October 2016, have a total capacity of 8 megawatts (MW).
Phase 2, which started at the end of May, but was hindered by severe weather, would add another 120MW, Tsai said.
Several foreign wind power developers are involved in phase 2 as subcontractors, including Belgium-based Jan De Nul NV and Spain-based wind farm builder Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy SA, with input from wind power development specialists, he said.
The completion of phase 2 is a milestone for Swancor, which entered offshore wind power development in Taiwan in 2015, he said.
It also represents progress for Taiwan’s offshore wind power industry, Tsai said.
Formosa 1 is owned by Danish energy developer Orsted A/S, with a 35 percent stake; Japan-based power producer JERA Co, with a 32.5 percent stake; Macquarie Capital Ltd of Australia, with a 25 percent stake; and Taiwan’s Swancor, which owns 7 percent, the project’s Web site says.
Orsted this year received permission to develop offshore wind power in Taiwan, as the government is pushing efforts to add renewable energy sources and build an eco-friendly environment.
Orsted last month said it was planning to issue New Taiwan dollar-denominated green bonds on the local market by the end of the year to raise money for its renewable energy development here.
Taiwan has received more than US$70 million in royalties as of the end of last year from developing the F-16V jet as countries worldwide purchase or upgrade to this popular model, government and military officials said on Saturday. Taiwan funded the development of the F-16V jet and ended up the sole investor as other countries withdrew from the program. Now the F-16V is increasingly popular and countries must pay Taiwan a percentage in royalties when they purchase new F-16V aircraft or upgrade older F-16 models. The next five years are expected to be the peak for these royalties, with Taiwan potentially earning
STAY IN YOUR LANE: As the US and Israel attack Iran, the ministry has warned China not to overstep by including Taiwanese citizens in its evacuation orders The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday rebuked a statement by China’s embassy in Israel that it would evacuate Taiwanese holders of Chinese travel documents from Israel amid the latter’s escalating conflict with Iran. Tensions have risen across the Middle East in the wake of US and Israeli airstrikes on Iran beginning Saturday. China subsequently issued an evacuation notice for its citizens. In a news release, the Chinese embassy in Israel said holders of “Taiwan compatriot permits (台胞證)” issued to Taiwanese nationals by Chinese authorities for travel to China — could register for evacuation to Egypt. In Taipei, the ministry yesterday said Taiwan
Taiwan is awaiting official notification from the US regarding the status of the Agreement on Reciprocal Trade (ART) after the US Supreme Court ruled US President Donald Trump's global tariffs unconstitutional. Speaking to reporters before a legislative hearing today, Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) said that Taiwan's negotiation team remains focused on ensuring that the bilateral trade deal remains intact despite the legal challenge to Trump's tariff policy. "The US has pledged to notify its trade partners once the subsequent administrative and legal processes are finalized, and that certainly includes Taiwan," Cho said when asked about opposition parties’ doubts that the ART was
If China chose to invade Taiwan tomorrow, it would only have to sever three undersea fiber-optic cable clusters to cause a data blackout, Jason Hsu (許毓仁), a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute and former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislator, told a US security panel yesterday. In a Taiwan contingency, cable disruption would be one of the earliest preinvasion actions and the signal that escalation had begun, he said, adding that Taiwan’s current cable repair capabilities are insufficient. The US-China Economic and Security Review Commission (USCC) yesterday held a hearing on US-China Competition Under the Sea, with Hsu speaking on
RSS