Orsted has been granted an establishment permit for the 900MW Changhua 1 and 2a offshore wind farm in Taiwan.
The permit, which was issued by the Asian island’s Bureau of Energy today, is a “significant milestone” for Orsted’s projects in Taiwan, the company said.
Orsted added that it will work in the coming weeks with the Taiwanese authorities and local stakeholders to reach other outstanding key project milestones, such as completing the supply chain plan and signing the power purchase agreement.
The company’s board of directors will decide on the final investment case once Orsted has clarity on the outcome of supply contract renegotiations and whether relevant project milestones are achieved in time to keep Changhua 1 and 2a on track for potential commissioning in 2021, it said.
Orsted had previously failed to meet a PPA deadline for the project because of permitting delays and, as a result, had said it would “pause and revisit” offshore wind activities in Taiwan.
The granting of a permit follows yesterday’s announcement by the Taiwanese authorities on the 2019 feed-in tariff for offshore wind farms.
Taiwan set developers a choice of FiT between a 20-year flat rate of NT5516 (€157) a megawatt-hour and a tiered tariff of NT6279.5/MWh for the first 10 years and NT4141.2/MWh for the remaining 10 years.
The tariff was 6% less than 2018, but not as low as the 12% reduction that had originally been planned.