The latest on Taiwan’s push to achieve 20 percent of its power generation through renewables by 2025.
The News Lens
Date: 2018/08/25
By: Timothy Ferry, Taiwan Business TOPICS Magazine
Credit: Reuters / TPG
In recent months, Taiwan has made significant strides towards achieving its goal of developing large-scale offshore wind-power resources. The government’s plans call for installing as many as 500 giant wind turbines in the Taiwan Strait in order to reach 3 gigawatts (GW) of offshore wind-power capacity by 2025.
On April 30, the authorities awarded nearly 2 gigawatts (GW) of grid allocation to two developers, Danish firm Ørsted with 900 megawatts (MW) and Germany’s wpd AG with 1GW of capacity. The allocation assures the two firms of eventual ability to connect the offshore wind farms they are developing to the Taiwan Power Co. (Taipower) grid for distribution to Taiwanese consumers.
Ørsted and wpd are only two of the many foreign players that have entered the Taiwan market – along with a slew of international investment funds to provide the financing – as Taiwan seeks to transition to a nuclear-free, low-carbon future based on offshore wind power and solar energy to replace its nuclear reactors and reduce reliance on coal.
The elimination of nuclear power has been enshrined in national law. All six of Taiwan’s nuclear reactors are scheduled to be retired when their 40-year licensures expire between the end of 2018 and 2025. [FULL STORY]
