The Changfang and Xidao Offshore Wind Project (CFXD) involves the development of two wind farms off the coast of Taiwan. The two wind farms will have a combined capacity of around 589MW.
Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners (CIP), an investment firm specialising in infrastructure investments, is developing the project.
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Global Renewable Power Company (GRSC), a wholly owned subsidiary of Global Power Synergy Public Company (GPSC), acquired a 25% stake in the CFXD project in September 2022.
The deal made GRSC a co-owner of the offshore wind farm project alongside majority stakeholders CIP-managed funds Copenhagen Infrastructure II (CI II) and Copenhagen Infrastructure III (CI III), and local Taiwanese minority shareholders.
The CFXD project secured grid allocation in 2018.
The Environmental Impact Assessments (EIAs) were first submitted in June 2017 and the project obtained Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) approval in January 2018. The CFXD’s Industrial Relevance Plan secured approval from the Industrial Development Bureau in 2019.
Construction phase for the Changfang and Xidao Offshore Wind Project began in February 2020, with commercial operations slated to begin in 2024.
Location details
The Changfang and Xidao offshore wind farms are being built within a zone allocated by the Bureau of Energy (BoE) for offshore wind development in the Changhua county on the west coast of Taiwan.
The site will be around 11km off the coast of Fangyuan Township in Changhua County.
Changfang and Xidao project details
The offshore wind project will comprise 62 Vestas V174-9.5MW turbines with a combined capacity of 589MW.
Each of the turbines will feature 85m-long three blades with a rotor diameter of 174m. With a swept area of 23,779m², one V174-9.5MW turbine can power 9,000 UK homes.
The wind turbines will be installed in water depths ranging from 26m to 46m on three-legged jacket foundations each installed on three piles driven into the seabed.
The strings of turbines will be connected via a network of 66kV inter-array subsea cables of a combined length approximately 73km.
The project infrastructure will include seven 66kV buried, subsea export cables of approximately 209km of combined length, to transmit power from the offshore wind farms to the landfall at Lunwei District in Changbin Industrial Park.
A network of seven 66kV buried onshore export cables totalling 22km will then transmit the electricity from the landfall point to the onshore substation, which will convert the transmission voltage levels from 66kV to 161kV.
The substation will be connected to the Taipower grid connection point via three 161kV export cables.
The CFXD will generate enough renewable energy to power around 650,000 households, helping Taiwan to reduce its reliance on coal and nuclear power to generate electricity.
The project will sell its electricity to the state-owned Taiwan Power Company under a 20-year Power Purchase Agreement (PPA).
Development plan
The Changfang and Xidao project is expected to be developed in multiple phases.
In the first phase, ten 9.5MW turbines for the Changfang offshore wind farm will be installed. The Changfang phase II will involve installing a further 47 turbines with a total capacity of 446.5MW,
The last five 9.5MW turbines for Xidao will be installed in the final phase.
Contractors Involved
MHI Vestas Offshore Wind will deliver the 62 turbines of the V174-9MW platform for the Changfang and Xidao Offshore Wind Farm project, while Century Wind Power is responsible for the supply of 62 three-legged jacket foundations.
MHI Vestas has a 16-year full scope service agreement with the first phase of the Changfang wind farm, and 15-year agreements with Changfang phase two and Xidao wind farms.
Offshore wind foundation and substation manufacturer Bladt Industries was engaged as a key sub-contractor for the foundations.
In October 2019, Boskalis and Taiwanese partner Hwa Chi Construction secured the foundation scope for the CFXD project. The scope of work includes the transportation and installation of the jacket foundations and the accompanying 186 pin piles.
Taiwan-based CSBC-DEME Wind Engineering (CDWE) will transfer and install wind turbines for the Changfang-Xidao offshore wind farm.
MENCK, a pile-driving specialist, was awarded a contract to support Boskalis with the foundation piling activities on the offshore wind project.
Teco Electric & Machinery was contracted for the construction of onshore substations for the CFXD project.
StormGeo was contracted for weather forecasting services including dedicated Metocean forecasting and typhoon warning services during the two-year installation phase and the first three years of operations for the project.
Correll Group with Seaway Offshore Cables were awarded a contract for the termination and testing of the 58 inter-array and seven offshore export subsea cables.
JUMBO Consulting Group was responsible for providing procurement and contract management services for the project.
CTCI Machinery, a subsidiary of CTCI, was responsible for fabricating 117 pin piles (PP) for the offshore wind project.
Project Financing
The Changfang and Xidao project reached financial closure in February 2020.
It is supported by export credit agencies Atradius, EKF, K-SURE, NEXI, UKEF, GIEK, KfW IPEX-Bank, and 21 international and local commercial banks along with Taiwanese life insurance companies Taiwan Life and TransGlobe Life.
Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group (MUFG) acted as financial advisor and CTBC as the local financial advisor for the project debt financing.
Global law firm White and Case was contracted to advise CIP.
The banks and financial institutions provided a total of $3bn in financing for the project.
