Ørsted allies with National Kaohsiung University of Science and Technology

Ørsted also signed MoUs with Dragon Prince (a spin-off from Kaohsiung Marine University’s business incubator), Pan Formosa, and EGS Taiwan respectively to continue sharing relevant expertise in offshore wind and support local businesses to develop capabilities that are required by the offshore wind industry.

NKUST will be established on 1 February by merging the National Kaohsiung Marine University, National Kaohsiung University of Applied Sciences, and National Kaohsiung First University of Science and Technology. After the merger, NKUST will have around 28,000 students, the second largest national university in Taiwan based on the number of students. The key areas for NKUST will be three technical fields: marine, industrial application and technology.

Matthias Bausenwein, Ørsted’s General Manager for Asia Pacific and Taiwan Chairman, said: "According to our development schedules, the Greater Changhua projects will start onshore construction in 2019 if the permitting work is successful. Preparation and engineers for offshore construction need to be in place at the same time. Kaohsiung is historically known for its marine and heavy industry and has great potential to become one of the centres for offshore wind, just like Changhua where our offshore wind farms will be located. We’re pleased to further collaborate with NKUST to support offshore wind education, research, and talent development.”

Matthias Bausenwein added: “The collaboration between Ørsted and NKMU started in 2016 when Dragon Prince, a small business registered under NKMU’s incubation center, was commissioned the site investigation tasks for Greater Changhua projects’ geophysical surveys and marine investigations during the EIAs and project development phases. Ørsted’s engineers visited Dragon Prince many times to share the global standards and requirements for offshore wind projects. Through intensive exchange of knowledge and communication, this collaboration has successfully elevated Dragon Prince’s capabilities for seabed geophysical survey and marine investigation technology, vessel handling and health, safety and environmental standards and turned them into one of the well-prepared local companies to take part in building up an offshore wind industry in Taiwan.

Ørsted’s successful example will now be extended to a higher level of cooperation between the company and soon-to-be NKUST. The first task will be for both sides to work jointly to establish a Master’s degree programme in offshore wind, combing research and practice, with a goal to start enrolment in 2019.

Lu Hsueh Hsin, Principal of NKMU, said: “NKMU is the only technical university in Taiwan that focuses on the development of marine science and technology. With NKMU’s rich academic resources, together with industry support and on-site training, this cooperation between industry and academia will enable students to obtain good training and become technical staff for Taiwan’s offshore wind industry.”

Today, Ørsted also signed MoUs with Dragon Prince, Pan Formosa, and EGS Taiwan to continuously support these three local suppliers in developing technical capabilities and skills for geology survey and geo physics to meet the world-class standards required in offshore wind project development.



In Taiwan, Ørsted is developing the Greater Changhua projects which include four sites located 35 to 60 kilometres off the Changhua coast. The total capacity is expected to be 2.4GW and can power 2.8 million homes in Taiwan. Ørsted also owns 35% of Taiwan’s first offshore wind project, the Formosa 1 project in Miaoli, a county in north-western Taiwan.

Ørsted has already installed more than 1,000 wind turbines offshore and is the biggest operator of offshore wind farms, with more than 8GW in operation and under construction.