MOEA outlines plans for floating offshore windfarms in Taiwan

In a 8 September presentation, ‘Draft of the Floating Offshore Wind Power Demonstration Project,’ the MOEA said it plans to select at least two, possibly three demonstration windfarms – each with 6-12 floating wind turbines – that will be connected to the grid by 2032-2033, although some sites, which may not be fully connected by then could also be allowed to participate.

Selection of contractors for the demonstration projects is expected to begin in 2027, with the results announced by the end of that year.

The MOEA said the aim of the meeting is to “gather opinions from all sectors and improve the selection mechanism.” It said the demonstration projects will focus on the evaluation of technology, finance, and sustainability.

“As offshore wind deployment moves towards deeper water areas, Taiwan is promoting floating demonstration projects to verify the feasibility of technology, finances, and infrastructure,” said the Energy Agency.

Responding to the announcement, Niras managing director Taiwan Raoul Kubitschek said the Taiwanese government seems to be trying to keep the process as simple and straightforward as possible. He said each of the projects would have a capacity of 100-200 MW. The government will use a feed-in-tariff, more details of which are due to be announced by Q1 2027.

Regarding the assessment criteria for projects, 45 points will be assigned to technical capability, 40 to financial and 15 to sustainability, with 70 points or more needed to pass. “If sites overlap, the developer with higher points wins,” he explained.

“The goal is to use the experience from these projects to get floating wind into the commercial phase to support Taiwan’s 2035 and 2050 net zero goals,” said Mr Kubitschek. “That means the government will not prescribe the use of any particular floating technology, and the auction will be agnostic regarding technical solutions.”

Mr Kubitschek’s colleague at Niras, Jason Wang Niras said the expectation is that the application window will open in Q1 2027 and close in Q3 2027, with the results announced in Q4 2027.

“Ports and marine engineering will clearly be key issues,” said Mr Wang. “Floating wind requires more quayside assembly before units are towed offshore, creating very different requirements from fixed-bottom offshore wind.”

He agreed with Kubitschek that the demonstration programme is being positioned as a technology-validation exercise, allowing different solutions to be tested in Taiwanese waters before identifying technologies better suited to future commercial deployment.”