Formosa 1 Offshore Wind Farm Explained

Formosa 1 Offshore Wind Farm
海洋竹南風力發電場
Location:Miaoli County, Taiwan
Status:O
Construction Began:November 2016
Commissioned:April 2017 (Phase 1)
End of 2019 (Phase 2)[1]
Owner:Ørsted (35%)
JERA (32.5%)
Macquarie Capital (25%)
Swancor Renewable (7.5%)[2]
Wind Farm Type:Offshore
Wind Site Usage:Electricity generation
Wind Offshore Depth:15-30 m
Wind Offshore Distance:6 km
Wind Rotor Diameter:130 m (4 MW), 154 m (6 MW)
Ps Units Operational:22
Ps Electrical Capacity:128 MW

The Formosa 1 Offshore Wind Farm is a 128 MW offshore wind power station in Miaoli County, Taiwan. It is Taiwan's first offshore wind farm.[3]

History

The Changhua County Government signed a memorandum of understanding with Macquarie Formosa 1 and Swancor Renewable Energy in March 2017 to invest NT$210 billion to the Formosa 1 Offshore Wind Farm project. The Macquarie Group then secured funding in June 2018 for the project from local and international banks.

K2 Management was appointed as the consultant and Sinotech Engineering Consultants was appointed as the EPC contractor for the project. Sinotech then subcontracted the turbine foundation design to COWI.

The first phase of the wind turbines were installed in November 2016 and commenced operation in April 2017 with a total installed capacity of 8 MW.[4]

The second phase of the project started in end of May 2019, expected to expand another 120 MW of electricity generations capacity. It was commissioned at the end of 2019.[5] [1]

Architecture

The wind power station was installed 6 km offshore of Miaoli County in the Taiwan Straits over an area of 11 km2.[4]

Technical specifications

The total installed capacity of the first phase is 8 MW, consists of two wind turbines from Siemens. Each turbine has a 120 m diameter rotor, 58.5 m long rotor blades and 11,300 m2 swept area. The turbines are installed on monopile foundations. The wind turbine performance is constantly monitored from Brande, Denmark.[4]

Additional 20 turbines with rated capacity of 6 MW each (120 MW in total) has been installed as the Phase 2 program as of October 2019. This was commissioned at end of 2019.[5] [1] Each turbine foundation has a crane to hoist tools and equipment for maintenance.[6]

Finance

The wind power stations distributes the generated power to Taiwan Power Company based on feed-in tariff agreed in a power purchase agreement for 20 years.[4] The wind farm is jointly owned by Ørsted (35%), JERA Co. (32.5%), Macquarie Capital (25%) and Swancor (7%).[5]

See also

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Taiwan's Formosa 1 offshore wind farm starts commercial operation . www.windtech-international.com . 8 January 2020.
  2. Web site: About Formosa I. 17 September 2019. FOWI. 17 September 2019.
  3. Web site: Joshua S.. Hill. Taiwan's 120 Megawatt Formosa 1 Offshore Wind Farm Reaches Financial Close. 12 June 2018. CleanTechnica. 22 March 2019.
  4. Web site: Formosa 1 Offshore Wind Farm. Power Technology. 22 March 2019.
  5. News: Chih-yi. Pan . Frances. Huang . 12 October 2019. Taiwan's 1st offshore wind farm to begin operations at year-end. Focus Taiwan. 12 October 2019.
  6. Web site: Palfinger wind cranes in Taiwan and Germany officially in operation . www.windtech-international.com.