Greater Changhua Offshore Wind Farms Taiwan
Greater Changhua offshore wind farm projects will be developed at four sites in the Taiwan Strait, approximately 35km to 60km offshore Changhua County in Taiwan. The total power generation capacity of the wind farms is planned to be 2.4GW.
Orsted, a Danish energy company, is the owner and developer of the project. Greater Changhua offshore wind farms include Greater Changhua 1 and 2a wind farms with 900MW capacity, Greater Changhua 2b and 4 wind farms with 920MW capacity and a future 600MW Greater Changhua 3 project.
Upon completion, the four Greater Changhua offshore wind farms will together form Taiwan’s largest wind power complex, which can power approximately 2.8 million Taiwanese households.
Greater Changhua offshore wind farm projects development
The Taiwan Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) approved the four planned offshore wind farm projects in February 2018. The company received an approval from the Taiwanese Government to connect 900MW wind capacity (Changhua 1 and 2a) to Taiwan’s national grid in April 2018.
The right to build the Changhua 2b and 4 projects was awarded in June 2018. Orsted reached the final investment decision (FID) on the Greater Changhua 1 and 2a wind projects in April 2019, while the FID on Greater Changhua 2b and 4 projects is expected in 2023.
Onshore construction started for the Changhua 1 and 2a wind farms in November 2019. The construction of the Greater Changhua 1 and 2a wind farms is anticipated to be finalised between 2021 and 2022 with operations expected to start in 2022. The Greater Changhua 2b and 4 wind farms are expected to reach commercial operation by 2026. Orsted plans to participate in the forthcoming auctions for the Greater Changhua 3 project.
Details of Greater Changhua wind farms project
The 900MW Greater Changhua 1 and 2a wind farms comprise Changhua 1 with a capacity of 605MW, which will be located at a water depth between 34.4m and 44.1m across an area of 108.7km², and Changhua 2a with a capacity of 295MW.”Upon completion, the four Greater Changhua offshore wind farms will together form Taiwan’s largest wind power complex, which can power approximately 2.8 million Taiwanese households.”
Greater Changhua 1 and 2a wind farms will feed 900MW to the Changhua’s total available grid capacity of 1,000MW in 2021.
Cable-laying vessel Nexus with 5,000t cable carousel capacity will lay 111 inter-array cables with a total length of approximately 135km and three export cables of approximately 145km in length for the Greater Changhua 1 and 2a project. All the inter-array and export cables will be protected by 235 NjordGuard cable protection systems and bellmouths. The cables will be buried by Van Oord’s Dig-It trencher to the required depth.
The MV Lone, a Dynamic Positioning (DP2) installation vessel, is used for pile installation. A Taiwan-flagged service operation vessel (SOV) will be deployed 35km to 60km off the coast of Changhua for the operation and maintenance (O&M) of the four wind farms. The SOV can accommodate up to 60 technicians and the crew, and operate at sea for 30 days.
Wind turbine details
The Asia-Pacific variant of the 8MW SG 8.0-167 DD offshore wind turbine will be installed at the Greater Changhua 1 and 2a wind farms. It is designed to withstand typhoons, seismic activities, as well as high and low ambient temperatures.
The turbine has a rotor diameter of 167m with a swept area of 21,900m² and uses 81.4m-long SGRE B81 blades. Aegir fast sailing heavy lift vessel will install 111 turbine foundations at a water depth of 30m-35m.
Transmission details
Greater Changhua 1 and 2a wind farms will contain two offshore high-voltage alternating current (HVAC) transformer platforms and two onshore HVAC substations.
The transmission lines of 66kV/ 220kV/ 161kV HVAC will be laid for the Changhua 1 wind farm. Changhua 1 wind farm will have two 230kV export cables with the length of approximately 55km each, which will be laid from offshore substation to onshore landing point. In addition, 4.35km-long 161kV export cables will connect the onshore stations to the Taiwan Power Company-operated Chang One A substation grid point of connection in Changhua County.
Power supply details
Orsted signed a 20-year power-purchase agreement (PPA) with Taipower to sell the electricity generated from the Greater Changhua 1 and 2a wind farms in January 2019.
The feed-in tariff can be chosen between a 20-year flat tariff of TWD5,516 (approximately $178.8) per MWh or a tiered tariff of TWD6,279.5 (approximately $203.5) per MWh for the first ten years and TWD4,142.2 ($134.2) per MWh for the next ten years.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) partnered with Orsted to off-take full production of the electricity generated from Greater Changhua 2b and 4 wind farms for 20 years under a fixed-price contract signed in July 2020.
Contractors involved
Keppel won a contract worth more than $150m for detailed engineering, procurement, construction (EPC), testing and commissioning of two 600MW offshore wind farm substations in May 2019.
Ramboll designed the topside and substructure of the Greater Changhua 1 and 2a wind farm substations, as well as executed the detailed designing of the offshore switchyard in 2019.
Taiwan Cogeneration Corporation and Star Energy are responsible for the EPC of two onshore substations, cable corridors, landfalls and transition joint bays for the Greater Changhua 1 and 2a project under a $227m contract signed in November 2018.
Siemens Gamesa will supply the wind turbines, while Heerema Marine Contractors will transport and install turbine foundations and two large offshore substations for the Greater Changhua 1 and 2a project.
Van Oord was contracted for the cable installation works, while Trelleborg was contracted to supply NjordGuard integrated cable protection system for the Greater Changhua 1 and 2a project.
Ta San Shang Marine, a joint venture between Taiwan’s Ta Tong Marine Group (TTM) and Japan’s Mitsui OSK Lines, will build and charter SOV for the O&M of Greater Changhua offshore wind farms under a 15-year contract signed in April 2020.
Other contractors include VARD Singapore, Pulse Structural Monitoring (a subsidiary of Acteon), SAL Heavy Lift, Woen-Jinn, CSBC Corporation, EGST, Sing Da Marine Structure (a China Steel Corporation (CSC) subsidiary), and Century Wind Power.
