Taiwan’s Environmental Protection Administration has concluded the review process and approved the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) of Ørsted’s four offshore wind projects located off Changhua County.
With the EIA approvals, Ørsted has secured exclusivity over the development of these four sites. The total capacity of the four wind farms, which will be located between 35 and 60 kilometres from shore, is expected to be 2.4 GW.
“Today’s approvals mark an important milestone for Ørsted’s expansion in Asia and the realization of Taiwan’s ambitious energy targets,” said Martin Neubert , CEO of Ørsted Wind Power.
The next step for the four Greater Changhua projects is to secure the corresponding grid capacity in 2018 and obtain the establishment permit by the end of 2019 at the latest. Shortly thereafter, Ørsted aims to secure the feed-in-tariff by signing the power purchase agreement.
Subject to Ørsted’s final investment decision, construction of the first of the four projects could potentially start as early as 2019.
Matthias Bausenwein , Ørsted’s General Manager for Asia Pacific, said: “The EIA approvals by Environmental Protection Administration are a crucial step towards securing Taiwan’s energy future with stable and clean power stemming from the strong winds in the Strait. We have now obtained exclusivity and certainty to further develop large scale offshore wind farms off Changhua county.”