Taiwan’s Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA) has awarded five wind farm projects totalling 2.7GW with capacity allocations in its latest round 3.2 offshore auction.
According to the list of awards released by the MOEA, the selected projects include local developer Shinfox's 700MW Youde; Synera Renewable Energy Group’s (SRE) 800MW Formosa 6; Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners' 600MW Fengmiao 2; Corio and TotalEnergies’ 360MW Formosa 3 joint-venture; and Enervest’s 240MW Deshuai.
A notable absence from the list was Ørsted after the Danish developer's 570MW Greater Changhua 3 proposal came in third in the initial bidding rankings in July. The MOEA said at the time that not all the ranked projects may be allocated capacity, highlighting the overlapping scope of some project sites.
The selected developers must now submit a formal notice by 11 November 2024.
On receiving an award for the largest project in the selection, SRE chairperson Lucas Lin commented: “SRE has been dedicated to offshore wind power in Taiwan since 2012, navigating through all the phases of industry development, namely demonstration, potential zones and zonal development. Our unwavering commitment to Taiwan and strong belief in its market potential have been driving us forward.”
Taiwan has an ambitious goal to reach 13.1GW of offshore wind power installation by 2030.
According to Power Technology’s parent company, GlobalData, Taiwan’s cumulative installed offshore wind capacity stood at 1.69GW as of 2023, with more than 2.3GW of projects currently under construction and over 25GW in development.
However, on 26 July, the EU requested dispute settlement consultations at the World Trade Organisation (WTO) concerning Taiwan’s use of local content criteria for offshore wind energy projects.
According to the EU, the criteria and eligibility are inconsistent with Taiwan’s WTO commitment to not discriminate against imported goods and services, having “a negative impact on a sector of strategic importance to the EU”.
