Ørsted pauses Taiwan offshore wind projects amidst permit woes

It failed to get an establishment permit for projects Changhua 1 and 2a in time.

Denmark-based firm Ørsted paused its projects in Taiwan and said it will revisit activities, timelines, and commitments after it failed to get an establishment permit in time to sign a 2018 power purchase agreement (PPA) with Taipower for the offshore wind projects, Changhua 1 and 2a, Offshore Wind reports.

The deadline for signing the 2018 PPA was extended to 2 January 2019. However, Taiwan’s Bureau of Energy had not issued an establishment permit by close of business local time.

According to the report, in November 2018 the Taiwanese government proposed a 2019 feed-in-tariff of TWD 5,106 per MWh ($165.6/MWh) and suggested a production cap of 3,600 annual full-load hours.

Ørsted Offshore CEO Martin Neubert commented, “We’re very concerned about the suggested feed-in-tariff level for 2019 as well as the newly proposed cap on annual full-load hours. We will need to see significant changes to these proposals before we can progress any further towards a final investment decision on the projects.”

“The proposed retrospective changes would jeopardise the creation of a local offshore wind supply chain, harm the planned transition to renewable energy and cause significant uncertainty among international investors looking to Taiwan,” the executive added.

The projects have a total capacity of 2.4GW and around 1.8GW has been earmarked for buildout in 2021 and 2025.