The Environmental Protection Administration’s (EPA) ad hoc committee yesterday approved seven offshore wind farm projects proposed by Denmark-based Orsted Energy and Nantou-based Swancor Renewable Energy Co.
The projects — four by Orsted and three by Swancor — are to be located off the coast Changhua County, which has become a competitive battlefield for wind farm developers.
However, the ad hoc committee’s conclusions must still be confirmed by the EPA’s Environmental Impact Assessment committee.
Yesterday’s approved projects bring to 14 the number of projects centered off Chuanghua that the ad hoc committee has greenlit.
Yesterday’s meetings were the third committee reviews for Orsted and Swancor’s projects.
To win approval, the two firms had reduced their development areas to avoid overlapping with shipping lanes or damage the habitat of Taiwanese humpback dolphins.
Orsted plans to install between 218 and 301 wind turbines at No. 12, 13, 14 and 15 planned sites, with their maximum capacity reaching about 2.4 gigawatts (GW).
At sites No. 11, 16 and 17, Swancor plans to install a maximum of 228 turbines, with a capacity totaling just over 2GW.
Some committee members raised concerns about potential historic remains in the waters near the proposed sites and the migration routes of migratory birds.
Committee member Liu Yi-chang (劉益昌) urged the two firms to promise to adjust the location of their turbines if they find historic remains offshore, and they agreed.
Orsted had proposed demarcating four routes used by migratory birds within the range of its wind farms, but committee member Lee Chien-ming (李堅明) asked it to establish more concrete plans.
Developers should also evaluate how to strive for “carbon rights” in the international community, considering wind energy can reduce the nation’s carbon emissions compared with coal-fired or gas-fired power, he added.
The ad hoc committee imposed several requirements on the developers, including asking them to propose plans to reduce air pollutants such as sulfur oxides and fine particulate matter emitted from machine engines powered by diesel fuels.
Orsted earlier this month signed memorandums of understanding with China Steel Corp and Century Wind Power — a subsidiary of Century Iron & Steel Industrial Co, said Matthias Bausenwein, the company’s general manager for the Asia-Pacific region.
The four offshore wind farms are Orsted’s biggest investment plan outside Denmark, he told reporters after the meeting at the EPA, adding that its investment is expected to reach NT$300 billion (US$9.99 billion).
Greenpeace yesterday said that it is to appeal a decision last month by the Taipei High Administrative Court to dismiss its 2021 lawsuit against the Ministry of Economic Affairs over “loose” regulations governing major corporate electricity consumers. The climate-related lawsuit — the first of its kind in Taiwan — sought to require the government to enforce higher green energy thresholds on major corporations to reduce emissions in light of climate change and an uptick in extreme weather. The suit, filed by Greenpeace East Asia, the Environmental Jurists Association and four individual plaintiffs, was dismissed on May 8 following four years of litigation. The
A former officer in China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) who witnessed the aftermath of the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre has warned that Taiwan could face a similar fate if China attempts to unify the country by force. Li Xiaoming (李曉明), who was deployed to Beijing as a junior officer during the crackdown, said Taiwanese people should study the massacre carefully, because it offers a glimpse of what Beijing is willing to do to suppress dissent. “What happened in Tiananmen Square could happen in Taiwan too,” Li told CNA in a May 22 interview, ahead of the massacre’s 36th anniversary. “If Taiwanese students or
DIPLOMACY: It is Guatemalan President Bernardo Arevalo’s first visit to Taiwan since he took office last year, while Eswatini’s foreign minister is also paying a visit A delegation led by Guatemalan President Bernardo Arevalo arrived in Taiwan yesterday afternoon and is to visit President William Lai (賴清德) today. The delegation arrived at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport at 4:55pm, and was greeted by Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍). It is Arevalo’s first trip to Taiwan since he took office last year, and following the visit, he is to travel to Japan to celebrate the 90th anniversary of diplomatic relations between the two countries. Arevalo said at the airport that he is very glad to make the visit to Taiwan, adding that he brings an important message of responsibility
About 3,000 people gathered at events in Taipei yesterday for an annual candlelight vigil commemorating the 1989 Tiananmen Square Massacre, a brutal crackdown by Chinese authorities on a student-led demonstration in Beijing on June 4 36 years ago. A candlelight vigil organized by the New School for Democracy and other human rights groups began at 7pm on Democracy Boulevard outside Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall, with the theme "Resist Transnational Repression, Defy Totalitarianism." At about 8pm, organizers announced that about 3,000 people had attended the event, which featured brief speeches by human rights advocates from Taiwan and China, including Hong Kong, as well