“Our environmental impact reports on several sites have been repeatedly rejected by the Environmental Protection Administration. Whatever the experts say counts. There is no room for debates,” Ma said.
Since Taiwan is a temporary home to many kinds of migratory birds, the main ecological concerns raised by bureaucrats and local conservation groups is that wind turbines could endanger wildlife. Studies conducted in several European countries, however, show the number of birds killed by wind turbines is negligible when compared to the amount that die as a result of other human activities.
According to Yan Wen-jyh (顏文治), manager of the Wind and Solar Energy Laboratory at the New Energy Technology Division, Industrial Technology Research Institute, the noise and electromagnetic waves generated by modern wind turbines can hardly stand out as issues. The constant, low, swooshing noise the turbine blades make falls below 45 decibels and is equal to the ambient sound measured 300m away from the wind generator.
The study conducted by the institute also showed that the largest electromagnetic waves detected around wind turbines are equal in strength to those produced by the average computer monitor.
As over 90 percent of the equipment and techniques required to build wind farms are imported, developing the local industry is high on government's agenda.
Starting this year, MOEA will provide an annual budget of NT$40 million — a fraction of the funds provided by countries such as Germany and Spain — to foster the manufacturing capabilities of private business.
“Taiwan doesn't have a wind-power industry yet, but our private sector has good prospects. Some companies are interested in manufacturing key components as part of the global division of labor, while some are looking to take up the challenge of building the whole model,” Lee from the Bureau of Energy said. “We have lots of manufacturers of gear wheels and glass fiber, which are needed to make the turbine blades. All we need is the design chart and we can make it happen.”
Founded last year, the Taiwan Wind Energy Industry Research and Development Alliance (台灣風力發電產業研發聯盟) is the incarnation of such a can-do spirit. Consisting of prominent enterprises such as Teco Electric & Machinery Co (東元電機) and Chin Feng Machinery Co (金豐機械), government bodies and research institutes, the alliance has already started its ambitious project to complete a turbine prototype by 2008 and make a commercially viable version by 2010.
If the partnership between government and business succeeds, and the ecological concerns allayed, Taiwan could become a major player in the renewable energy market, as it does in the global IT industry.
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