Yunlin Offshore Wind Farm

Yunlin offshore wind farm is a 640MW project planned to be developed approximately 8km off the coast of Yunlin County, Taiwan.

wpd, a wind farm developer based in Germany, owns 73% of YunNeng Wind Power, the company responsible for the development and operation of the project. The remaining 27% is owned by the Starwind Offshore consortium, which is a joint venture (JV) of Sojitz Corporation, Chugoku Electric Power, Chudenko Corporation, Shikoku Electric Power, and JXTG Nippon Oil & Energy Corporation.

Wpd was awarded the tender to build and operate the Yunlin offshore wind farm by the Taiwanese Government in April 2018, while financial closure on the project was reached in May 2019.

Offshore construction works on the project are expected to be started in March 2020, while commissioning is scheduled for December 2021.

When completed, Yunlin will be one of the biggest wind farms in Taiwan, after the Changhua offshore wind farm, and provide clean electricity to more than  450,000 Taiwanese homes, while offsetting 916,000 tonnes (t) of CO₂ emissions a year.

Yunlin offshore wind farm make-up

The Yunlin offshore wind farm will be installed with 80 SG 8.0-167 DD offshore wind turbines from Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy (SGRE). It will be the first wind farm in Asia Pacific to use such turbines.

With 167m-diameter rotor and 81.4m-long blades, each direct-drive turbine will have a swept area of 21,900m² and a rated capacity of 8MW.

Equipped with high wind ride through (HWRT) system, the wind turbines are designed for smooth ramp down instead of immediate shut-down, when the wind speed exceeds 25m/s.

Power transmission

The electricity generated by the turbines will be gathered and transmitted to two onshore substations, through 272km of 66kV aluminum core submarine composite cables.

Financing

wpd secured €2.7bn ($3bn) in project financing for the Yunlin offshore wind farm from 19 Taiwanese and international banks and three export credit agencies including EKF, Euler Hermes, and Atradius, in May 2019.

The Taiwanese banks that have agreed to extend debt financing for the project include the Cathay United Bank, CTBC Bank, E.SUN Bank, and the Taipei Fubon Commercial Bank, while the 15 international banks supporting the project include the BNP Paribas, DBS Bank, Deutsche Bank, ING Bank, KfW-IPEX Bank, Mizuho Bank, and the MUFG Bank, among others.

SMBC and E-Sun acted as financial advisors, while Blanke Meier Evers, Linklaters, and Lee and Li acted as legal advisors for the project financing.

Contractors involved

Siemens Gamesa received the turbine supply order for the Yunlin offshore wind farm in May 2019. The contract also includes a 15-year service agreement for the wind turbines.

Van Oord awarded a contract worth €500m ($600m) to design, manufacture, and install 80 turbine foundations for the offshore wind project, in May 2018.

Fred Olsen Windcarrier was subcontracted by Siemens Gamesa to transport and install turbines at the Yunlin offshore wind farm, while CS Wind and Ching Fong have been subcontracted to provide local-made turbine towers for the project.

Seaway Offshore Cables, a subsidiary of Subsea 7, was awarded the engineering, procurement, installation, and commissioning (EPIC) contract for the inter-array as well as the export cable systems for the Yunlin offshore wind project, in November 2018.

Seaway Offshore Cables will perform the cable work using the cable lay vessel (CLV) Seaway Aimery and the installation support vessel (ISV) Seaway Moxie.

Korean cable maker LS Cable & System was subcontracted by Seaway Offshore Cables in January 2019, to supply 170km of submarine cables for the project.

CWind Taiwan, a JV of CWind and International Ocean Vessel Technical Consultant (IOVTEC), completed a bathymetric survey at the Yunlin offshore wind farm site in October 2018.