Taiwan’s imports 98% of its energy. To lower carbon emissions and become more energy independent, Taiwan needs renewables. Given the excellent geographical conditions for offshore wind, 17 of the world’s top 50 wind farms are to be in Taiwan.
Taiwan’s government has, for these reasons, moved quickly to invest significantly in wind energy. At the same time, the objective is to create a strong local wind industry, and they have increased their localization requirements on developers in Phase 3.1 to 70%. This requirement pushes local industry to develop, although sometimes it seems like it only protects it, nevertheless the requirement stands, and the objective of 13.1GW in wind power by 2030 as well.
With the help of floating wind farms, the vision is to achieve 40-50 GW of capacity installed by 2050. Floating is needed to develop wind farms in deeper water and has the added potential benefit of being a technology that is still developing, so that ideally Taiwan might develop its own superior solution, which could be patented and exported.
As an example of the opportunities available, in 2023-2024 alone, the Taiwan government and Taipower are expected to invest close to NTD 22 billion (USD 720M) in the development of offshore wind power.
The most important exhibition in Asia’s hottest wind market. Highlights
Taiwan has a leading position in the Asia-Pacific wind energy market, and Wind Energy Asia gathers the key industry players to exhibit and speak, with the full breadth of the supply chain and brings current and potential talent to the event. A professional exhibition platform allowing participants to meet face-to-face. Professionals from all fields of the industry including wind farm development, floating wind turbines, training, operations and maintenance, underwater foundation engineering, and others speak from the stage to an avid audience of professionals.
The 3-day expo from March 8 to 10, 2023 will have 33 stage events, including the Bright Outlook sessions, the WEA Forum and technical seminars. The site visit this year will go to the “Maritime Personnel Training Office” of the National Kaohsiung University of Science and Technology. Given the advantageous location and facilities of the Kaohsiung Exhibition Center on the harbor, there will be 2 vessels in the marinas by the hall that can be visited during the show. One each from Cwind Taiwan and U-Ming Marine Offshore.
With the pandemic waning and travel restrictions lifted, the combination of a busy, high-level exhibition hall, excellent stage events, business-matching by key players, to the vessels in the marina, will attract a good mix of international and Taiwanese visitors, making it not only the best exchange and cooperation platform, but also generate excellent business opportunities.
2023 will be the 5th edition of Wind Energy Asia and boasts international pavilions from the Netherlands, Denmark, the United Kingdom, Norway, and France, which all together will join a total of 121 participating companies from 15 countries in over 270 booths of exhibition space.
Some examples of new international participants are:
- Seatech a manufacturer of meteorological observation buoys from South Korea,
- Marsun Public Co. Ltd. from Thailand is one of the leading shipbuilders in Asia,
- PTSC is a member of PetroVietnam and a leading provider of technical services in Vietnam’s oil and gas industry.
There are 22 supply chain companies from Taiwan which will take part in WEA for the first time. Their main objective is to efficiently connect with international wind energy players.
The future of Taiwan’s wind power is unfolding!
Don’t miss the Taiwan Floating Wind Pavilion formed by National Taiwan University’s New Energy Center, CSBC Corp. Taiwan and SOIC Ship and Ocean Industry R&D Center who will showcase their Taiwan-designed innovative semi-submersibles.
Their unique design of the floating platform and the mooring system is made to resist the strongest typhoon experienced in Taiwan in the last 50 years. It has ballast control technology, so that the floating platform still stays balanced to achieve the best power generation for the wind turbine. The geometry of the floating platform provides a lot of space for maintenance. The specifications take into account the conditions and capabilities of the domestic supply chain. It is great to have organized a floating wind power national team for localization, to enhance the competitiveness of Taiwan’s wind power industry and broaden the supply chain. With this team, Taiwan has laid a good foundation.
While developing the wind power industry, environmental and ecological issues are extremely important. Hongyi Ecological Co., Ltd. specializes in ecological assessment and monitoring, plant restoration planning, ecological inspection and tracking, expanding to underwater noise and acoustic surveys.
The Ministry of Economic Affairs estimates that the overall investment in Taiwan’s wind power will exceed NTD 1.5 trillion (USD 50B). In future, it will include floating wind power generation, towers, underwater foundations, power facilities, marine engineering, wind turbine components, environmental and ecological assessment, etc., all part of Taiwan’s offshore wind industry.
All levels of the supply chain need technical talent. In the tight labor market, the industry welcomes professionals with higher wages and specific training. Students from many technical universities will participate in the expo, looking for information and potential job opportunities.
In the morning of Friday, March 10, the National Kaohsiung University of Science and Technology’s Maritime Personnel Training Office and professional maritime personnel training institutions will be the object of the site visit.
