A four-year plan is under way to increase wind power generation as part of efforts to increase energy generated from “renewable” sources to 20 percent by 2025, the Cabinet said yesterday.
The plan aims to increase the nation’s wind power generation capacity by 32 percent to 1.3 gigawatts by 2020, with land-based capacity increased to 814 megawatts and offshore capacity to 520 megawatts, it said.
It is a primary step to achieving the goal of increasing wind power capacity to 4.2 gigawatts and producing 14 billion units of electricity every year by 2025, which, if successful, would create 10,000 jobs and bring NT$613.5 billion (US$20.37 billion) in investments, Bureau of Energy Director-General Lin Chuan-neng (林全能) said.
“The key to developing wind energy lies in harvesting offshore wind energy, because the development of land-based wind farms is nearing completion,” Lin said.
To develop offshore wind power, the government has selected three sites in the Taiwan Strait, Vice Minister of Economic Affairs Yang Wei-fu (楊偉甫) said.
One site has been operational since April with a total capacity of 16 megawatts.
Twenty-two development proposals have been made by international developers to build offshore wind farms and they are in the process of seeking environmental approvals, Yang said.
Although they cannot be fully completed by 2025, the proposals would bring NT$1.8 trillion in investment if all of them are approved and carried out, Lin said, adding that the facilities would have a combined capacity of 10.2 gigawatts.
“It is not empty talk to achieve a wind power capacity of 4.2 gigawatts by 2025,” Lin said.
However, if the developers fail to secure environmental approval by the end of this year, they would no longer have the right to be first to invest, Lin said, adding that only one of the 22 proposals had cleared its environmental impact assessment.
“Taiwan has the best offshore wind field in the world, and has the ability to manufacture machinery and electronics to harvest wind energy,” Premier Lin Chuan (林全) said. “The government encourages international companies to team up with Taiwanese businesses to gain global market share with their competitive edge in technology.”
Lin Chuan asked the Ministry of Economic Affairs to streamline its consulting service for international investors to reduce investment uncertainties.
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