German investors look to boost Taiwan's offshore wind market

Local FiT rates were reduced to $0.18 (NT$5.516) per kWh for 2019.

German investors are eyeing Taiwan’s offshore wind power market amidst its typhoon and earthquake-prone location, a report by Focus Taiwan News Channel revealed.

Taiwan is said to have positive prospects that could accelerate development in the country, including an ideal market size, a growing supply chain and political commitment.

“Taiwan has very favourable natural conditions. It has wind speeds exceeding 11 metres per second, which is really good,” Alexander Ohff, executive vice president of the World Forum Offshore Wind (WFO), was cited.

The local government has pledged that an approximate 20% of the country’s power will come from renewable energy by 2025.

The feed-in-tariff (FIT) rate in Taiwan for offshore projects signed with state-owned utility Taiwan Power Co. (Taipower) was reduced to $0.18 (NT$5.516) per kWh in 2019. This represents a 5.71% reduction from the 2018 rate of $0.19 (NT$5.85) per unit.

Taiwan changed its policy proposals that would have slashed FiT rates for offshore wind projects by 12.71% in January 2019 amidst backlash from developers.

In June 2019, Denmark-based power firm Ørsted bagged an $806m (NT$25b) syndicated green loan facility from 15 banks for its offshore wind farm projects in Taiwan. The firm plans to build four offshore wind farms in Changhua country, which will have a total capacity of about 900MW.

Photo courtesyof Maggie Chou (Wikimedia Commons)