All typhoon-proof Hitachi turbines in at Taiwan's second offshore wind pilot array

Jan de Nul has completed the installation of all 21 typhoon-proof Hitachi wind turbines for Taiwan Power Company’s (TPC) 109MW Windfarm Phase 1 project (formerly called Changhua phase 1) in the Taiwan Strait.

TPC’s delayed project off the coast of Fangyuan, in central-western Taiwan is the island’s second offshore wind project nearing completion. So far, the 128MW Formosa 1 project built by Swancor (and majority-owned by Macquarie) with Siemens Gamesa turbines is the only operating offshore wind farm in the country.

Both projects are from a trio of utility-scale pilot arrays Taiwan granted support before starting tenders for its first 5.5GW phase of projects supposed to be commissioned by 2025.

“With this major milestone we have now reached the final stretch of the project which has challenged us in many ways, not even imaginable when we started more than three years ago,” said Jan Kop, project director TPC Project for Jan De Nul.

“The Covid-19 restrictions and regulations implemented by authorities in Taiwan and around the globe have affected the project, but we have always continued with great commitment finalising the installation of the cables, jacket foundations and wind turbines.”

Jan de Nul had originally expected the project to be installed last year.

The TPC Offshore Wind Farm is built in a region where typhoons are very common.

Each of Hitachi’s 5.2MW turbines are installed on a jacket foundation with transition piece, anchored to the seabed using four steel pin piles, and equipped with wind turbines with a downwind rotor that were the first to receive a Wind Turbine Class T certification to withstand typhoons.

Japan’s Hitachi has since given up its wind turbine production, and said it will instead focus on distributing onshore machines made by Germany’s Enercon as it shifts its wind strategy to digitalisation and O&M.