Spain-headquartered BlueFloat Energy has deployed a floating Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) system at the site of the Winds of September floating wind project offshore Taiwan.
The planned wind farm is located 25 kilometres offshore from Hsinchu city, with a water depth of 64-96 metres, and an area of approximately 125 square kilometres.
The 1 GW wind farm is BlueFloat Energy’s first project in Taiwan which the company unveiled in May last year.
The offshore wind developer said that the deployment of the floating LiDAR device will enable the gathering of local metocean data, including wind, wave, and current, to inform the floater and mooring system design as well as to refine the wind resource assessment.
This floating LiDAR system is the Akrocean WINDSEA Stage 2, which achieved stage 2 of the offshore wind accelerator roadmap according to the criteria defined by Carbon Trust in the UK.
BlueFloat Energy appointed K2 Management as the Owner’s Engineer for its floating offshore wind project.
K2 Management is supporting the company following its entry into the country’s third round of offshore wind tenders scheduled for later in 2023, which will see Taiwan adding another 3 GW of offshore wind to its existing capacity.
The Taiwanese government recently closed the first offshore wind auction under its Round 3 Zonal Development Plan, selecting seven new offshore wind projects that will move forward to realisation.
The Round 3 offshore wind tenders in Taiwan are procuring project development for wind farms scheduled to go online from 2026 to 2035, during which period a total of 15 GW of new capacity will be added.