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Offshore wind farm's migratory bird season construction rejected by environmental review; environmental groups criticize developer for shifting costs onto the environment

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Offshore wind project requested construction during migratory bird season, unanimously rejected by environmental review committee members; environmental groups: Developers' costs should not be borne by the environment

An offshore wind company requested construction during the migratory bird season and sought to change environmental review regulations, but was rejected by environmental review committee members! The Environmental Protection Administration held a meeting this morning (the 8th) on the environmental differential analysis for the Yunlin offshore wind project of Wynn Energy, a subsidiary of Dade Energy Group. The company argued that due to the COVID-19 pandemic and poor offshore weather conditions, the submarine cable project had been delayed, and hoped to modify the environmental review regulation requiring that "construction in the intertidal zone be avoided during the migratory bird migration period from November to March," allowing the company to begin construction connecting submarine cables to the onshore booster station in mid-February.

Environmental groups present considered Dade Energy's request for changes to be quite unreasonable, arguing that project delays cannot serve as grounds for altering environmental review conclusions, and that the pandemic impact and poor sea conditions are both human management factors related to project control. Environmental group lawyer Huang Hsin-wen further pointed out: "Having the environment bear the cost issues is extremely unfair."

After deliberation by the environmental review committee members present, they concluded that the reasons provided in Dade Energy's environmental differential analysis were insufficient, and unanimously opposed changing the original environmental review conclusions, rejecting Dade's request.

Dade Energy's Yunlin wind farm covers an area of 82 sq km, with a total of 80 turbines and six submarine cables, of which only one has been completed so far. (Photo by Lin Chi-yang)

Dade Wynn Energy: Pandemic impact and poor sea conditions caused project delays, requests construction during migratory bird season

Dade Group's Wynn Energy has an offshore wind project site of 82 sq km off the coast of Kouhu, Yunlin, with plans to develop 80 offshore turbines, with submarine cables making landfall at Sihu and Taixi respectively. Currently, the onshore booster station project has been completed, and offshore turbine piling has begun. However, six submarine transmission cables must pass through the intertidal zone to connect to the booster station, and five remain unlaid. Since the company's submarine cable vessel lease contract will expire in April, the company requested that the environmental review meeting modify the environmental review conditions to allow the company to complete submarine cable laying work from mid-February to March.

Wynn Energy stated that due to the pandemic affecting the entry and exit of foreign technical personnel and vessel scheduling, as well as poor sea conditions from September to October making operations impossible, combined with soil conditions differing greatly from original estimates, the submarine cable project progress was delayed and could not be completed on schedule, prompting the environmental differential analysis.

Dade emphasized that the submarine cable vessel lease only runs until April, after which the working vessel must be handed over to another operator. Currently, there are still five submarine cables on board, with a length of 70 km and a weight exceeding 2500 tonnes. Domestically, only Taichung Port has two submarine cable storage slots, both of which are already full. Due to contractual factors, the environmental differential analysis had to be submitted.

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