Danish firm Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners K/S (CIP) yesterday announced six proposed sites for offshore wind farm projects for its phase 3 development.
Together, the six sites add up to 6.3 gigawatts (GW) in potential capacity.
Four of the proposed sites are in waters more than 50m deep — the limit for fixed-bottom turbine technology.
Photo courtesy of Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners
While floating turbine technology is still in the experimental phase, CIP Taiwan Round 3 Projects chief executive Jesper Krarup Holst described the decision to go into deeper waters as a “no brainer” and urged the government to initiate a pilot project for floating wind farms.
“It’s just a matter of time before the shallow sites are fully utilized,” Holst said. “If Taiwan expects to have more offshore wind, naturally we will have to go further and further offshore.”
“We expect a large part of the capacity in round 3 will be floating technology,” he added.
Aside from opening up capacity, other benefits of going into deeper waters includes fewer controversies to be resolved, Holst said.
Offshore wind farm developers in Taiwan have run into a series of conflicts ranging from fishing rights to aviation safety concerns.
However, floating wind farm technology is not yet ready for large-scale development.
Holst urged the government to enact two or three pilot 100-megawatt (MW) wind farms immediately to gain experience with the emerging technology.
“What’s crucial here is that the pilot project should be delivered fast,” Holst said. “This will allow commercial projects to be delivered after 2025.”
The six sites will be submitted for phase 3 or “zonal development” of the government’s offshore development plan, which will see 1GW of offshore wind capacity allocated per year between 2026 and 2035.
The Ministry of Economic Affairs is still in the process of finalizing the framework for zonal development.
CIP Taiwan project office director Marina Hsu (許乃文) called for continued local content requirements to sustain Taiwan’s nascent offshore wind supply chain.
“There were a lot of naysayers, but we worked hard with our local partners to prove that offshore wind content localization can be done,” Hsu said. “We support the continuation of this policy so that our suppliers can get more volume and prepare to become exporters.”
For phase 2 of offshore wind development, CIP was allocated 600MW for its Changfang and Xidao Wind Farm projects.
There is enough area in the Xidao wind farm that has passed its environmental impact assessment, but will not be developed as part of phase 2 and can serve as a site for a pilot floating wind farm, Holst said.
If the floating wind farm technology can be realized on a commercial scale, Taiwan could potentially develop more wind power than planned, he said.
“We believe that offshore wind can do much more than the 10GW announced” for zonal development, Holst said.
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