Orsted Taiwan Ltd (沃旭能源) yesterday announced that it has signed a 20-year wharf lease with Taiwan International Ports Corp (TIPC, 臺灣港務) for the development of its offshore wind farms off Changhua County.
The company said that it has leased several wharfs and adjacent land at the Port of Taichung, which would be upgraded and serve as a construction base and warehouse for its upcoming southeast and southwest wind projects with a combined capacity of 900 megawatts.
“We plan to use the land to store essential components, such as pin piles, wind turbine towers and blades,” a company official surnamed Chan (詹) told the Taipei Times by telephone.
The company said that it also plans to set up an environmentally friendly operations and maintenance center at the port for its remaining projects due in 2025.
The center would be principally comprised of a green building and would also serve as a main base for the company’s operations throughout the Asia-Pacific region, it said.
“We also expect that during the operations and maintenance phase, our greater Changhua wind farms will create several hundred local direct and indirect jobs with our contractors and suppliers,” Orsted president for Asia-Pacific Matthias Bausenwein said in a statement, emphasizing the company’s resolve to participate in the development of a local supply chain for Taiwan’s offshore wind industry.
The company is developing four offshore wind sites off Changhua and holds a 35 percent stake in Formosa I (海洋風電), Taiwan’s first offshore wind farm, which was launched in November last year.
Separately on Monday, the Investment Commission approved additional investment by Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners (CIP) in two local offshore wind farm units.
CIP plans to inject NT$6.34 billion (US$208.54 million) into CI Changfang Ltd (哥本哈根基礎設施彰芳) and NT$581.1 million into Taiwan Wind Investment Co Ltd (台灣風能), the commission said.
Taiwan Wind is a joint venture CIP formed with Taiwan Life Insurance Co (台灣人壽保險) and Transglobe Life Insurance Co (全球人壽).
Last week, CIP secured US$3 billion to finance its 589-megawatt Chang Fang (彰芳) and Xidao (西島) wind farm projects.
The US dollar was trading at NT$29.7 at 10am today on the Taipei Foreign Exchange, as the New Taiwan dollar gained NT$1.364 from the previous close last week. The NT dollar continued to rise today, after surging 3.07 percent on Friday. After opening at NT$30.91, the NT dollar gained more than NT$1 in just 15 minutes, briefly passing the NT$30 mark. Before the US Department of the Treasury's semi-annual currency report came out, expectations that the NT dollar would keep rising were already building. The NT dollar on Friday closed at NT$31.064, up by NT$0.953 — a 3.07 percent single-day gain. Today,
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