Taiwan Seeks Seismometers for Offshore Wind Farm

The government of Taiwan is looking for suppliers of seismometer monitoring equipment as part of an unnamed offshore wind project. 

The local company is looking for three to four seismometers to be used on an unidentified offshore wind farm, according to the UK’s Exporting Is Great programme.

Seismometers are to monitor the natural frequency (fn) of offshore wind turbines for detection of structural stiffness under/beyond allowance.

Around 10% of a total number of offshore wind turbines will need to be equipped with the seismometers during the offshore wind farm’s operation and maintenance phase.

The seismometers are most likely to be used on the 130MW Formosa I, the country’s first offshore wind farm. The Formosa I, scheduled for commissioning in 2019, will comprise 32 4MW wind turbines installed three to six kilometres off the west coast of Taiwan, covering an area of 11 km².

Potential providers of the equipment have until 30 November to express their interest in participating in the tendering procedure. The value of the contract is unknown.

Taiwan plans to install three offshore wind farms with a total capacity of 300MW by 2020, and to achieve at least 3GW of total installed offshore wind capacity by the year 2025.

According to the country’s Bureau of Energy, Ministry of Economic Affairs, Taiwan’s offshore wind energy projects are expected to attract TWD 2.5 billion (EUR 70 million) of fresh investments in 2016 and a total of TWD 670 billion of new investments by 2030.