Taiwan signs pact to develop offshore wind energy

Wu Wen-teng, director of the Research Center for Energy Technology and Strategy, said the school hopes its academic resources can be integrated into wind power industrial development.

He noted that the Bureau of Energy under the Ministry of Economic Affairs unveiled a series of incentive measures for offshore wind turbines systems this month, and is scheduled to promote four exemplary offshore units by 2015. "The NCKU hopes to help achieve the goal through the signing of the agreement," Wu said.

Lin Hsin-yu, general manager of Taiwan Generations Corp., said that since Taiwan started to developed onshore wind power more than a decade ago, it has developed about 20 onshore wind farms, and the installed capacity is nearly 400 megawatts, averaging only 20 MW per wind farm.

"The major reason is that Taiwan is small with high population density, and the onshore wind farms and their scales are limited," Lin said.

He noted that Fuhai wind farm off Changpin has been assessed to be the best offshore wind farm, and it is estimated that it could generate electricity for 3,200 to 3,600 hours per year. Based on the calculation of a unit of 200 MW system, it could generate 640 million kilowatt hours of electricity, enough to power 130,000 households for one year.

focustaiwan.tw/