Denmark-based wind turbine manufacturer MHI Vestas Offshore Wind A/S yesterday signed a conditional contract of purchase with Mitsubishi Electric (Europe) Corp.
The Japanese firm is to cooperate with its long-time Taiwanese partner, Shihlin Electric & Engineering Corp (士林電機), to deliver high-voltage switchgear to MHI Vestas.
“Shihlin Electric would deliver [the switchgear] to us by 2022, which would then be used for the [wind farm] projects due in 2023 and 2024,” MHI Vestas co-CEO Lars Bondo Krogsgaard said during a signing ceremony in Taipei.
THREE PROJECTS
MHI Vestas is to deliver 9 megawatt turbine platform units for the Chang Fang (彰芳) and Xidao (西島) projects, developed by Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners K/S (CIP), as well as for the Site 29 project, which is codeveloped by CIP, China Steel Corp (中鋼) and Diamond Generating Asia Ltd (DGA).
All three projects are located off Changhua County and are to generate a total of 900 megawatts.
Mitsubishi has designed a 66 kilovolt switchgear that Shihlin Electric would manufacture, test and assemble at its Hsinchu plant, said Joseph Kuo (郭約瑟), chief senior vice president of Shihlin Electric’s heavy electric business group, at a news conference.
Krogsgaard said that MHI Vestas would contribute NT$9.2 billion (US$293.31 million) to Taiwan’s output value and create 5,300 job opportunities through its ventures in the nation.
The Danish company has signed contracts with other local suppliers, such as Swancor Holding Co (上緯投控) for blade materials and Chin Fong Machine Industrial Co (金豐機器工業) for turbine towers, to comply with localization content rules tied to offshore wind farm projects in Taiwan.
CALL FOR FLEXIBILITY
However, Krogsgaard called for more flexibility from Taiwanese authorities, as he described the localization of power conversions systems as “mission impossible,” as property rights belong to Vestas Wind Systems A/S, which holds a 50 percent stake in the company.
“We cannot work with others without infringing on the agreements that we have with Vestas,” Krogsgaard said, adding that the company has proposed various solutions to the government, such as localizing the production of power conversion modules, which contain more than 7,000 components.
“This would create additional value for Taiwan’s economy,” he said.
CIP Taiwan project office chief executive officer Jesper Krarup Holst also asked for more wiggle room in the local content rules.
“Up to 16 components are required by the government to be localized regardless of brands and assembly techniques,” Holst said.
He urged the government to reidentify the requirements to facilitate the development of Taiwan’s wind power industry.
SETBACK: Apple’s India iPhone push has been disrupted after Foxconn recalled hundreds of Chinese engineers, amid Beijing’s attempts to curb tech transfers Apple Inc assembly partner Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), also known internationally as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), has recalled about 300 Chinese engineers from a factory in India, the latest setback for the iPhone maker’s push to rapidly expand in the country. The extraction of Chinese workers from the factory of Yuzhan Technology (India) Private Ltd, a Hon Hai component unit, in southern Tamil Nadu state, is the second such move in a few months. The company has started flying in Taiwanese engineers to replace staff leaving, people familiar with the matter said, asking not to be named, as the
The prices of gasoline and diesel at domestic fuel stations are to rise NT$0.1 and NT$0.4 per liter this week respectively, after international crude oil prices rose last week, CPC Corp, Taiwan (台灣中油) and Formosa Petrochemical Corp (台塑石化) announced yesterday. Effective today, gasoline prices at CPC and Formosa stations are to rise to NT$27.3, NT$28.8 and NT$30.8 per liter for 92, 95 and 98-octane unleaded gasoline respectively, the companies said in separate statements. The price of premium diesel is to rise to NT$26.2 per liter at CPC stations and NT$26 at Formosa pumps, they said. The announcements came after international crude oil prices
DOLLAR SIGNS: The central bank rejected claims that the NT dollar had appreciated 10 percentage points more than the yen or the won against the greenback The New Taiwan dollar yesterday fell for a sixth day to its weakest level in three months, driven by equity-related outflows and reactions to an economics official’s exchange rate remarks. The NT dollar slid NT$0.197, or 0.65 percent, to close at NT$30.505 per US dollar, central bank data showed. The local currency has depreciated 1.97 percent so far this month, ranking as the weakest performer among Asian currencies. Dealers attributed the retreat to foreign investors wiring capital gains and dividends abroad after taking profit in local shares. They also pointed to reports that Washington might consider taking equity stakes in chipmakers, including Taiwan Semiconductor
A German company is putting used electric vehicle batteries to new use by stacking them into fridge-size units that homes and businesses can use to store their excess solar and wind energy. This week, the company Voltfang — which means “catching volts” — opened its first industrial site in Aachen, Germany, near the Belgian and Dutch borders. With about 100 staff, Voltfang says it is the biggest facility of its kind in Europe in the budding sector of refurbishing lithium-ion batteries. Its CEO David Oudsandji hopes it would help Europe’s biggest economy ween itself off fossil fuels and increasingly rely on climate-friendly renewables. While