wpd may reclaim spot in Taiwan offshore wind farm project

On February 16, 2022, Lealea Group announced that Haixia wind farm, which it co-develops with wpd, will compete in the Phase 2 Transition Round for approval and permit and Phase 3 Zonal Development Round. The review for Phase 2 has begun, awaiting the submission of required documents.

After contract of Liwei wind farm was terminated due to flight safety issue, the Bureau of Energy (BoE) started working on a waiting list. The BoE originally planned to announce the selected developers at the end of 2021. However, Haiding, the first wind farm on the waiting list, failed to fill up the vacancy due to regulation issue and tight schedule. Therefore, Haxia, the preceding wind farm on the list, is likely to take the spot.

Co-developed by Lealea Group and wpd, Haixia wind farm (No. 28 site) is located off the shore of Fangyuan Township, Changhua County, with 600 MW of capacity. Lealea Group has three seats on the board of directors, and wpd has one. If Haixia get the spot, 300 MW of capacity must be connected to the grid by 2025. Faced with financial and time pressures, wind farms on the waiting list may be breaching contracts if construction fall behind schedules. Still, Lealea has good relations with the locals, whilst wpd, having been involved in the construction of Yunneng wind farm, is well-experienced in developing wind farms. Against these backdrops, InfoLink sees high possibility for Haixia to take the spot, successfully connecting to the grid by 2025.

In the meantime, Haixia wind farm actively compete for Zonal Development, of which the first round of auction is ongoing for now, with developers submitting bids successively. As of February 2022, 11 cases have been granted with approval for recordation, translating to 8 GW of capacity, suggesting how intensified the competition is, as compared to the first tender’s 3 GW grid-connecting capacity. This round of developer selection will end in August 2022.