WindEnergyUpdate speaks to SeaEnergy’s CEO, Joel Staadecker, about getting in on the ground floor of the world’s next big wind energy market.

By Rikki Stancich

Notching up a series of ‘firsts’, Sea Energy is not only the UK’s first listed company to focus exclusively on the offshore wind industry; it now ranks among the first foreign companies to be invited to partner in a series of Far East offshore wind projects.

Following its recent announcement to partner with offshore wind farm developer, Taiwan Generations Corporation (TGC), to develop a pipeline of offshore wind projects in the Taiwan Strait, WindEnergyUpdate caught up with one of SeaEnergy’s founders, Joel Staadecker, to find out just how full of promise the Far East wind energy market is likely to be.

The first of these projects, the Changhua Offshore Windfarm, will be located up to 10km off the West Coast of Taiwan in the Taiwan Strait and will have a generating capacity of 600MW.

WindEnergyUpdate: Taiwan Generations Corporation is developing a portfolio of projects. Will SeaEnergy only be involved in the Changhua project, or will it develop the entire portfolio?

Joel Staadecker: The agreement we signed with TGC covers the whole pipeline of 3 projects of 1.7 GW in size. Of these, the first project is the most advanced, given that data gathering has been going on for some five years, which makes the project particularly attractive.

This will be our first joint-project development outside of the UK. Our foray into the Far East began a year ago in an effort to develop relationships in the region. This particular project came on the radar when we met a local developer out there who was in a position to seek our offshore expertise.

WindEnergyUpdate: What challenges do you anticipate regarding the development of offshore wind farms in the Taiwan Strait?

Joel Staadecker: Currently, there is no supply chain. This project will trigger a constellation of companies to come together to supply structures, the foundations, onshore assembly sites, port facilities and deployment vessels. Currently none of the vessels out there are optimized for offshore wind farm construction, so we’ll likely see a lot of new designs coming off the drawing board.

When it’s time to pull the trigger on this project, it will be a matter of pulling contractors together to build and construct. There are already ideal port facilities, however, these facilities have never handled offshore wind projects.

WindEnergyUpdate: What kind of policy support is available in Taiwan for wind energy projects? How do the conditions compare to markets in the US and
Europe?

Joel Staadecker: Currently the Taiwanese government is establishing a feed-in tariff (FiT), similar to Europe’s. The legislative framework for the FiT has been established; now all that remains is for the tariff itself to be set, which is due to happen in January 2010.

Once the tariff level is set, we will have a greater understanding of the economics of the project. The FiT really is the next milestone. We are currently working behind the scenes to help the government avoid making the same mistakes that happened in Europe, whereby the FiTs were set too low. The tariff needs to be set at a level that is attractive to the industrial sector and we are working hard to encourage this.

WindEnergyUpdate: The costs of project development are likely to be lower in the Far East than in Europe. Can you provide an idea –a comparative figure – of how much lower the costs are likely to be?

Joel Staadecker: The cost structure for project development in the Far East is a lot different than it is here. There is a completely different model of revenue and expenses and yes, the local content will be significantly less costly.  

However, understanding the cost comparison requires a lot of groundwork – we are still working this out ourselves and as such, we are not in a position to put a figure on it just yet.

WindEnergyUpdate: What kind of transmission is available; or will this be built-in to the project development?

Joel Staadecker: Grid connection will comprise part of the project development cost. There is no grid interconnection provider, like in the UK. The Changhua project, which will lie between 2.5km and 10km from shore, already has a routing pathway and permits to tie the power into an existing onshore substation that is adjacent to the offshore project. There is a fair amount of pre-existing onshore wind that already links in to that area.

WindEnergyUpdate: Can we expect to see any new technologies for offshore wind rolled out via the SeaEnergy-TGC project?

Joel Staadecker: SeaEnergy is the technology partner in this project and we will probably borrow from our Beatrice experience.  Given that this is an early stage project, the foundation structure has not yet been determined, in terms of whether we’ll use monopiles or jackets. We’ll more than likely use technology that is well proven, or well demonstrated, so we are probably not looking for technology breakthroughs on this project.

WindEnergyUpdate: What other markets is Sea Energy considering in addition to the UK and Taiwan?

Joel Staadecker: In our view, there are three key markets that are currently ripe for offshore wind. At present, Europe leads globally, and the UK leads Europe.  Then there is the Far East and North America.  These are the two logical places to be involved in wind energy project development. At present, the Far East is way ahead of the US, due to a recent sea change in China’s policy.