More than 9 GW of new offshore wind capacity under review in Taiwan

Taiwan’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has started reviewing Environmental Impact Assessments (EIAs) for nine offshore wind projects totaling 9.1 GW in capacity, with more than half of the nine projects led by European developers.

EPA is holding preliminary EIA review meetings for the projects this month and started with Swancor Renewable Energy’s (SRE) Miaoli 3 wind farm offshore Tongxiao Town in Miaoli County on 9 March.

The project is planned to have a total installed capacity of 1,104 MW and to comprise wind turbines of a nominal output of between 9.5 MW and 20 MW.

SRE’s much bigger Miaoli 2 project has also entered EPA’s review system, where it will be evaluated for the addition of 1,536 MW of offshore wind to Taiwan’s energy mix.

This project is located off Houlong Town in Miaoli County and is also planned to feature wind turbines of between 9.5 MW and 20 MW of output each.

According to information published earlier, these projects are the ones Swancor Renewable Energy’s announced in 2020 as part of a three-phase development with a total installed capacity of 4.4 GW, previously dubbed Formosa-2 and Formosa-3.

Five of the nine new projects moving through EPA’s review are led by European developers and two by the Canadian company Northland Power.

Ørsted is proposing to build two new, 750 MW offshore wind farms in Changhua County, where the company is already building its 900 MW Changhua 1 & 2a project.

The offshore wind farms, Xufeng-2 and Xufeng-3, are planned for the waters off Lugang Township and would use turbines of an output of between 11 MW and 16 MW.

Another Europe-headquartered developer with an offshore wind farm under construction in Taiwan – wpd – also has two more planned for Taiwanese waters: Datian and Youde, which had their preliminary review hearing on 11 March.

The two project sites are located offshore Lugang Town and Fuxing Township, Changhua County. Each wind farm has a 700 MW capacity and would feature turbines with an output of between 11 MW and 15 MW.

Furthermore, an offshore wind project developed by Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners (CIP) has also entered the EIA review process with a preliminary meeting scheduled for 15 March.

CIP’s Taichung Fengmiao offshore wind farm, situated in the waters off Taichung City, is planned to have an installed capacity of 1,800 MW and to comprise turbines of between 9 MW and 20 MW of nominal capacity.

In Taiwan, CIP is already building the 589 MW Changfang & Xidao offshore wind farms.

Northland Power has submitted an EIA for review for a 1,204 MW project off Taichung City, named Beineng, as well as for a 602 MW wind farm offshore Changhua County, named Cangeng. Preliminary review meeting for these projects is also set for 15 March.

Both projects are planned to use wind turbines with a capacity of between 14 MW and 20 MW.

The Canadian company announced last year that it planned to submit applications for two new proposed development sites in the upcoming Round 3 offshore wind auction in Taiwan. Northland Power referred to to the project sites as NorthWind and CanWind in February 2021, and said they could accommodate a total capacity of up to 1,800 MW.

In August last year, Taiwanese Government finalised the allocation plan for its Round 3 offshore wind tenders, which will be procuring project development for wind farms scheduled to go online from 2026 to 2035, during which period a total of 15 GW of new capacity will be added.

The first phase of Round 3 tenders will be held for projects that will be put into operation in 2026/2027.

According to Taiwan’s Environmental Information Center, head of the Energy Bureau of the Ministry of Economic Affairs, Chen Chongxian, said that the Bureau had received a total of 23 site applications, which amount to a total installed capacity of 14 GW, after removing site areas that overlap. 

In addition to the nine cases now undergoing EIA review, several applications are in the process of entering the EPA system, Environmental Information Center writes.