On April 25, 2024, Ørsted announced that the Greater Changhua 1 and 2a offshore wind projects with a total installed capacity of 900 MW have been put into full operation. Greater Changhua Wind Farms 1 and 2a, developed by Ørsted, began construction of the offshore project in the summer of 2021, installing its first jacket foundation and laying its first output cable.

One year later, all jacket foundations were installed. In February 2022, the first Siemens Gamesa SG 8.0-167 DD wind turbines were installed and grid connection began in April.

In April 2022, the first units of the Greater Changhua 1 and 2a wind farms will be connected to the grid. Mads Nipper, president and CEO of Ørsted Group, said the Greater Changhua 1 and 2a offshore wind farms are the wind operator's first GW class offshore wind farms outside Europe. It is also the first utility-scale offshore large-scale wind farm in Taiwan Province, and upon completion of the project, it will become the largest wind farm of its kind in the Asia-Pacific region.

The Greater Changhua 1 and 2a offshore wind farms were originally scheduled for completion in 2023, but the project has been delayed to 2024 due to supply chain bottlenecks encountered by the developers.

Of these, Greater Changhua 1 Wind Farm, with an installed capacity of 605MW, is jointly owned by Ørsted(50%) and Mercury Holdings (50%), a consortium consisting of Credit Quebec Bank (CDPQ) and Cathay PE private equity fund. The 295MW wind farm 2a is owned exclusively by Woasahi Energy Ørsted.

The two 900MW offshore wind projects are part of Ørsted's portfolio of projects in the Greater Changhua Offshore Wind Zone, which also includes Greater Changhua 2b, 3 and 4, with a combined capacity of approximately 2.4GW.

As a global leader in offshore wind, Ørsted has installed more than 1,900 offshore wind turbines. By the end of 2023, Ørsted has 8.9 GW of installed offshore wind capacity, 6.7 GW of capacity under construction and a further 3.7 GW of capacity awarded, resulting in a total capacity of 19.2 GW. The company plans to reach a target of 35-38 GW of installed renewable energy capacity by the end of 2030. Editor/Xu Shengpeng