Orsted Taiwan Ltd (沃旭能源) yesterday announced it has delivered first power from its 920-megawatt Greater Changhua 2b and 4 offshore wind farms, the first offshore project built to supply renewable energy to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (台積電).
The wind farms, located 35 to 60 kilometers off the coast of Changhua County in western Taiwan, will eventually consist of 66 Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy SA 14-236 turbines, each with a capacity of 14 megawatts, the company said in a statement.
Jayaram Naidu, managing director of the Greater Changhua offshore wind project, said in the statement that achieving first power within just three months of installing the first subsea foundation in April demonstrates Orsted’s “strong project execution” capabilities.
Photo courtesy of Orsted Taiwan Ltd
“Despite ongoing challenges in the global wind industry, we’ve stayed on course by working closely with our suppliers and contractors,” Naidu said.
“This milestone marks the beginning of the next phase — safely completing construction, energizing additional wind turbines, and progressing steadily toward full commercial operation,” he said.
Orsted Taiwan chairperson Christy Wang (汪欣潔) said the milestone is significant for the company and “reaffirms Taiwan’s leadership in offshore wind across the Asia-Pacific region.”
“All of the renewable energy generated by the 920 MW wind farms will be supplied to TSMC through our 20-year corporate power purchase agreement, aiding our corporate customer in advancing its climate action and sustainability goals,” Wang said.
The project has progressed rapidly since a final investment in it was made in March 2023, with all 66 suction bucket jacket foundations and 32 turbines already installed, the statement said.
Two onshore substations and one offshore substation have been energized, and undersea cable laying is continuing on schedule, it added.
The project is the first in Taiwan to employ piling-free suction bucket jacket foundations, which Orsted said generate almost no noise during installation and can be fully removed at the end of the wind farm’s operational life, reducing potential impact on marine ecosystems.
The Greater Changhua 2b and 4 wind farms follow the company’s 900 MW Greater Changhua 1 and 2a project, which began operations in April last year.
Once the new wind farm is fully operational, Orsted’s total installed offshore wind capacity in Taiwan will reach 1.82 gigawatts — enough to power approximately 2 million households and reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 3.5 million metric tons annually, the company said.
The Denmark-based renewable energy company added that this will make it the largest contributor to Taiwan’s offshore wind capacity to date.
Elon Musk’s lieutenants have reached out to chip industry suppliers, including Applied Materials Inc, Tokyo Electron Ltd and Lam Research Corp, for his envisioned Terafab, early steps in an audacious and likely arduous attempt to break into the production of cutting-edge chips. Staff working for the joint venture between Tesla Inc and Space Exploration Technologies Corp (SpaceX) have sought price quotes and delivery times for an array of chipmaking gear, people familiar with the matter said. In past weeks, they’ve contacted makers of photomasks, substrates, etchers, depositors, cleaning devices, testers and other tools, according to the people, who asked not to
Taichung reported the steepest fall in completed home prices among the six special municipalities in the first quarter of this year, data compiled by Taiwan Realty Co (台灣房屋) showed yesterday. From January through last month, the average transaction price for completed homes in Taichung fell 8 percent from a year earlier to NT$299,000 (US$9,483) per ping (3.3m²), said Taiwan Realty, which compiled the data based on the government’s price registration platform. The decline could be attributed to many home buyers choosing relatively affordable used homes to live in themselves, instead of newly built homes in the city’s prime property market, Taiwan Realty
The government yesterday approved applications by Alphabet Inc’s Google to invest NT$27.08 billion (US$859.98 million) in Taiwan, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said in a statement. The Department of Investment Review approved two investments proposed by Google, with much of the funds to be used for data processing and electronic information supply services, as well as inventory procurement businesses in the semiconductor field, the ministry said. It marks the second consecutive year that Google has applied to increase its investment in Taiwan. Google plans to infuse NT$25.34 billion into Charter Investments Ltd (特許投資顧問) through its Singapore-based subsidiary Fructan Holdings Singapore Pte Ltd, and
JET JUICE: The war on Iran’s secondary effects have seen fuel prices skyrocket, knocking flight schedules down to earth in return as airlines struggle with costs Airline passengers should brace for more irritation in the next few months as carriers worldwide cancel flights and ground planes to cope with stratospheric increases in jet-fuel prices. Dutch flag carrier KLM is the latest company to cut its schedule, saying on Thursday that it would scrap 80 return flights at Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport in the coming month. That puts it in the same league as United Airlines Holdings Inc, Deutsche Lufthansa AG and Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd, which have all pruned itineraries to mitigate costs. Global capacity for next month has been reduced by about 3 percentage points, with all
RSS