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.
RISK FACTORS: ‘We hope people can cooperate and endure it ... it is possibly the very important last mile,’ Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung said Taiwan’s COVID-19 restrictions and mask regulations are to remain the same next month, the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) said yesterday. The center reported 42,112 new local COVID-19 cases and 85 deaths, saying that the number of hospitalized COVID-19 patients has dropped to a new low this month. Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中), who heads the CECC, said that the center is keeping COVID-19 restrictions and mask regulations the same due to the local virus situation, and an increase in the number of imported cases of the new Omicron subvariants BA.4 and BA.5 of SARS-CoV-2, among other risk factors. Easing
TRAVEL CONFERENCE: Representatives from the two countries exchanged views on how to increase tourist numbers, with one identifying individual travel as a trend Taiwan and South Korea aim to increase the number of tourists traveling between the two countries to 3 million, government and tourism industry representatives said at a conference in Hsinchu City yesterday. The annual event was attended by Deputy Minister of Transportation and Communications Chen Yen-po (陳彥伯); Tourism Bureau Director-General Chang Shi-chung (張錫聰); Taiwan Visitors Association chairwoman Yeh Chu-lan (葉菊蘭); South Korean Representative to Taiwan Chung Byung-won; Yoon Ji-sook, an official at the South Korean Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism; and Korea Association of Travel Agents chairman Oh Chang-hee. Global tourism is expected to soon rebound to between 55 and
DAMAGE CONTROL: The KMT in a statement called the Taiwan Strait ‘international waters,’ after Alexander Huang said China had the right to claim it as internal waters Lawmakers and experts yesterday accused the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) envoy to the US Alexander Huang (黃介正) of acting as China’s stooge, after he said that Beijing has the right to claim waters beyond its maritime territory as its exclusive economic zone and that the US has no legal basis to assert that the Taiwan Strait is an “international waterway.” Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Wang Ting-yu (王定宇) said in an online post that most of the world considers the Strait an international waterway, adding that this is important for safeguarding Taiwan. “We have seen US warships transiting through the Taiwan Strait.
The Taichung District Court yesterday sentenced to nine years in prison an unlicensed judo coach who caused the death of a seven-year-old student after slamming him onto the ground more than a dozen times. In its decision against the coach, a man surnamed Ho (何), the court cited his lack of remorse for using excessive force against an inadequately trained child and his failure to reconcile with the parents for his role in their son’s death. Speaking on behalf of the boy’s mother, Taichung City Councilor Jacky Chen (陳清龍) said the family would appeal to a higher court. Prosecutors said that Ho on
RSS