107 out of 111 Siemens Gamesa SG 8.0-167 DD wind turbines have been installed at Ørsted’s Greater Changhua 1 and 2a offshore wind farm site in Taiwan, with nearly 85 per cent of them connected to the national grid.
Offshore construction on the Greater Changhua 1 and 2a project started in the summer of 2021. All jacket foundations were installed at the site, located 35-50 kilometres off the coast of Changhua County, in August 2022.
The wind farm produced its first power in April 2022, after the installation and energisation of the first batch of its Siemens Gamesa SG 8.0-167 DD turbines.
Now, nearly 85 per cent of the wind turbines are connected to the grid, representing approximately 700 MW, making it the largest grid-connected capacity for a single wind farm in Taiwan, Ørsted said.
According to Christy Wang, Chairperson of Ørsted Taiwan, the installation of the final few wind turbines will commence in February.
The developer said that the 900 MW Greater Changhua 1 and 2a wind farm has generated clean electricity equivalent to reducing 830,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions since the first turbine was connected to the grid.
“Since the beginning of gradually connecting Greater Changhua wind farms, we saw consistently and steadily clean electricity produced, especially during the winter months. This is evidence that the favourable wind conditions in the Taiwan Strait and the carbon reduction benefits that large-scale wind farms can bring,” said Wang.
The completion of the wind farm was planned for 2023 but it was pushed back to 2024 after Ørsted announced in November 2023 that it was experiencing delays due to bottlenecks in the supply chain.
Despite the obstacles, Ørsted is nearly completing the 900 MW Greater Changhua 1 and 2a and is pushing forward the 920 MW Greater Changhua 2b and 4 offshore wind farms, scheduled for completion by the end of 2025.
The 605 MW Greater Changhua 1 is co-owned by Ørsted (50 per cent) as well as Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec (CDPQ) and Cathay PE, with a combined ownership stake of 50 per cent.
The total of 1.82 GW of installed capacity will produce annual clean power equivalent to the power production of three coal-fired units at the Taichung Power Plant and is sufficient for two million Taiwanese households, according to the Danish renewable energy developer.