BlueFloat picks final location for Taiwanese wind floater

Image by BlueFloat Energy

Spanish offshore wind specialist BlueFloat Energy has confirmed that a site off Hsinchu City, in the Strait of Taiwan, will become home to the first phase of its 1-GW Winds of September floating offshore wind park.

The company revealed the site location for the project on Thursday and said that the scheme’s first phase will take part in the bidding in Taiwan’s upcoming floating Demonstration Programme later this year. Additionally, it announced the signing of an agreement with Metal Industries Research & Development Centre (MIRDC) to conduct a capacity analysis related to the local manufacturing supply chain for floating offshore wind mooring and anchoring systems in Taiwan. The collaboration is seen to lead to beneficial adjustments in maritime engineering, port operations, and the supply chain. “This will serve as a foundation for the ” Winds of September – Phase 2″ for participating in Zonal Development R3-3 bidding,” BlueFloat said.

Winds of September Phase 1 will consist of up to 12 floating turbine platforms with a combined capacity of 180 MW. The machines will be installed about 23 km off Hsinchu City, where a floating lidar deployment campaign was launched last March.

Taiwan is expected to announce feed-in tariff and selection rules for the upcoming floating wind Demonstration Project in the third or fourth quarter of the year and allow developers to conduct site investigations in 2025. Their wind farms should become operational by 2030.