TAIPEI, Taiwan — A fire involving a wind turbine at Ørsted’s Greater Changhua 4 offshore wind farm has raised fresh questions about safety at Taiwan’s rapidly expanding offshore renewable energy sector, although the incident caused no injuries and did not disrupt the rest of the wind farm.
The affected turbine automatically shut down after its system detected an abnormal condition on August 8, before a fire was observed. The blaze later extinguished, and the turbine was immediately isolated from the transmission system as a safety precaution, according to Ørsted. The company says the rest of the wind farm continues to operate normally while the damaged unit remains offline.
What happened to the offshore wind turbine?
Additional reporting from Taiwanese and industry outlets provides a clearer timeline of the incident. Local reports identified the affected unit as turbine G05, saying it experienced a fault in the early morning before the fire broke out and later subsided. Taiwan’s Energy Administration said the operator reported the incident and that the response procedures complied with the wind farm’s disaster-prevention plan. The cause, however, has not yet been determined.
Importantly, no personnel or vessels were operating near the turbine at the time, and there were no casualties. A safety exclusion zone has since been established around the affected structure.
Ørsted is now working with turbine supplier Siemens Gamesa to investigate what caused the incident and assess the equipment before repairs begin. The company has stressed that it would be premature to speculate about the cause or any wider environmental impact until the investigation is complete.
Why the incident matters for Taiwan’s energy future
The Greater Changhua 4 project is part of one of Taiwan’s most significant offshore wind developments. Located roughly 35 to 60 kilometres off Changhua County, Greater Changhua 4 comprises 42 turbines with a total capacity of approximately 583 MW, according to Ørsted’s project information.
While a single turbine being taken offline does not mean the entire wind farm has stopped operating, the fire puts a spotlight on the challenges of maintaining increasingly large and complex offshore energy infrastructure.
Industry reporting has described the incident as involving a 14 MW-class turbine, highlighting the scale of the equipment now being deployed in Taiwan’s waters. Offshore wind farms are designed with protective systems that can shut down and isolate individual equipment failures to prevent problems from spreading — a safeguard Ørsted says worked as intended in this case.
Investigation now becomes the key question
For now, the most important unanswered question is what triggered the abnormal condition and subsequent fire.
Taiwan News, citing local reporting and an academic expert, noted that equipment failures cannot be ruled out at power-generation facilities. However, no official investigation has yet established equipment failure — or any other factor — as the cause. That distinction is crucial as investigators continue their work.
The incident ended without injuries, and the wider wind farm remains operational. But as Taiwan continues investing heavily in offshore wind to strengthen its energy transition, the findings of this investigation could draw close attention from regulators, operators and the renewable energy industry.
For now, one turbine remains shut down — and the investigation into how the fire started is still underway.
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