Taiwanese Alliance Pursues Offshore Wind

A quartet of Taiwanese offshore specialist firms have formed an alliance to provide services for the country’s nascent offshore wind energy sector.

Shipbuilder CSBC Corp signed a memorandum of understanding with Yang Ming Marine Transport, Taiwan Navigation and Taiwan International Port Corp to cooperate on shipping and marine engineering projects and delivery of breakbulk solutions for the sector.

“This is indispensable to the future of our energy security. It should be the consensus of the people. We should keep pushing in this direction,” said Liu Wen-ching, director of Taiwan Navigation.

 

Sharing Offshore Expertise

All four of the new partners are state-run and all will contribute assets and expertise to the new venture with CSBC, the nation’s only listed shipbuilder, expecting the alliance to drive greater focus on offshore breakbulk transport from the sector.

“We hope that Taiwan's own fleet can do its best to be useful to this venture. Some of us have ships. Some have management know-how. Some have personnel,” said Cheng Wen-lon, CEO of CSBC Corp.

 

5.5 GW Target

Taiwan’s investment in renewables follows a huge push for wind power by mainland China, which has quickly developed the largest installed capacity of wind power in the world, and recently started construction on the 900-megawatt Jieyang offshore complex.

“There's a lot of work that goes into building an offshore wind farm, such as setting up electricity generating stations at sea, maritime shipping, and systems installation. The government is pushing to meet its target for 2025,” Wen-ching added.

Last year, Taiwan’s Ministry of Economic Affairs approved grid capacity for 11 offshore wind projects with 738 megawatts to be completed by 2020, and 3.1 gigawatts between 2021 and 2025.

“If by 2025 we can reach 5.5 gigawatts of installed offshore wind capacity, we would be able to generate 19.8 billion kilowatt-hours of clean power that year. It would account for 7.3 percent of the energy mix,” said Lin Chuan-neng, director general of MOEA Bureau of Energy.