Developers reveal groundbreaking localization results with the advancement of Taiwanese Offshore wind farm selection in April, 2018. Ørsted, the leading wind power enterprise in Denmark, signed a contract with Century Wind Power in March, 2018. This agreement is for Ørsted to procure a Transition Piece of the wind turbine underwater substructure from Century Wind Power for an amount of 2.5 million EUR (90 million Taiwan dollars) which is to be delivered in the second half of 2018. It is the first local offshore wind power contract in Taiwan. Ørsted estimated that future underwater foundations of wind farms are to be locally produced, with a total commercial value of up to 60 billion Taiwanese dollars.

Ørsted Signs Contract with with the Taiwan-based Century Wind Power (CWP) .This  contract is the first manufacturing order signed in Taiwan (Image source: Ørsted)

Ørsted stated that, its contract with Century Wind Power is the first local procurement and fabrication contract signed in Taiwan since the government’s commencement on promoting the development of offshore wind power industry. In the future, the amount of investment for a single wind farm in the Greater Changhua offshore wind power project will be between 90-110 billion Taiwanese dollars. The underwater substructure production of the four wind farms allocated to Ørsted, is expected to come from local supply chain. The estimated total offshore substructure contract amount is 55 to 60 billion Taiwanese dollars.

Matthias Bausenwein, Ørsted’s Asia-Pacific General Manager and Chairman of Ørsted Taiwan, said that Ørsted chose to enter the Taiwanese market two years ago and immediately negotiated for cooperation with Taiwanese manufacturers to develop a local supply chain. In order to ensure the local manufacturing standard and production capacity for the supply of underwater foundation for the “Greater Changhua Offshore Wind Power Project”, in the past two years, Ørsted engineering team from Europe has visited Taiwan and worked closely with Century Wind Power to continuously share professional standards and knowledge.

Century Iron’s Chairman, Lai Wen-Hsiang, also stated that Century Iron began manufacturing offshore wind power infrastructure in 2013 and established a subsidiary “Century Wind Power” last year. At present, it is actively establishing a joint venture with Danish offshore wind turbine substructure manufacturer, BLADT, as a subsidiary of Century Wind Power, to facilitate with the introduction of European manufacturing technology, so that Century Steel and Century Wind Power can become qualified substructure suppliers in the offshore wind power industry.

Lai Wen-Hsiang also said that in the future, Century Iron and Century Wind Power’s offshore wind power products will soon comply with European standards which in turn will allow its products to be exported to every country and economic bodies within the European Union. It shall also influence the corresponding local supply chain, so that the quality of Taiwanese suppliers will be of international standards. Currently, Century Wind Power actively plans to set up a new fabrication yard in Taipei Harbour. It plans to build a 16-hectare fabrication plant for the underwater foundation and to secure another 16-hectares of storage area to store the underwater infrastructure. The plant commissioning is expected to be completed by the end of 2019. The estimated total investment amount will reach 5 billion Taiwanese dollars in multiple phases and create 300 to 500 employment opportunities.

Ørsted said that the purpose of signing the contract is for Century Wind Power to “warm up” for the tender preparation of the “Greater Changhua Offshore Wind Power Project”. The contract content binds Century Wind Power to fabricate a foundation Transition Piece for Ørsted, as well as be responsible for project management, procurement and storage. The total contract amount is 2.5 million EUR and the estimated delivery period is the second half of 2018. This purchase contract will enable Century Wind Power to prepare in advance for the supply of a large number of pipe-framed infrastructures at the Ørsted wind farms.

The “Greater Changhua Offshore Wind Power Development Plan” will be located 35 to 60 kilometers away from the shore of Changhua. The planned facility will have a maximum capacity of 2.4 GW and will supply 2.8 million Taiwanese households with the electricity required. One of the first onshore substations will adopt a turn-key project approach. This turn-key contract is expected to be awarded to a Taiwanese supplier in the third quarter of 2018, after grid allocation by the Taiwanese Bureau of Energy, Ministry of Economics. The contract amount is expected to be 3 billion Taiwanese dollars.

http://news.ltn.com.tw/news/business/breakingnews/2367637