Taiwan Offshore Wind Power Alliance Set to Begin Operation in 2013

The Taiwan Offshore Wind Power Alliance was formed in October 2010 with the participation of 18 firms from the electro-mechanical, plastics and chemical, parts and components, and maritime engineering sectors, who plans to not only operate in Taiwan but eventually overseas.

H.Y. Lin, general manager of Yuan Chuan Energy Corp., said the alliance will set up Taiwan's first offshore wind farm in Changhua County, investing between NT$60 billion and NT$70 billion to install 122 wind turbines which will begin commercial operation in the second quarter of 2013.

The leading members of the alliance include Formosa Heavy Industries Corp., China Steel Machinery Corp., Tatung Co., Red Blades Windtek Corp., Swancor Corp., Yuan Chuan Energy Corp., Taiwan Cogeneration Corp., Fortune Electric Co., Allis Electric Corp., CSBC Corp., Taiwan, and Yeong Guan Energy Technology Group, with the 18 members boasting market capitalization exceeding NT$200 billion and pledging to create Taiwan's pilot offshore wind farm by tapping cross-industry partnership.

Two 5MW Wind Turbines
The construction of the offshore wind farm will be led by Yuan Chuan Energy, Swancor and Red Blades Windtek, with the proposed wind farm to have two sets of 5MW wind turbines that are expected to pass environmental impact assessment (EIA) in 2012, after which the alliance will be licensed to start construction.

Swancor chairman C.Y. Tsai said the alliance will invest between NT$1 billion and NT$1.2 billion to install the two wind turbines in the first-stage, with another 122 wind turbines to be installed between 2014 and 2016 in the second stage and involve investment between NT$60 billion and NT$70 billion.

Energy Potential
Tsai said that the total potential wind energy in the Taiwan Strait totals nine gigawatts, allowing for the installation of 2,000-odd wind turbines to create NT$1 trillion in business opportunities.

The chairman added that the time is ripe for Taiwan to develop wind power, and that installing 1,500 sets of 5MW wind turbines offshore Taiwan will cut CO2 emissions by 13.5 million metric tons, equivalent to the CO2 emissions from 2.6 No.4 nuclear power plants. Spending NT$90 billion to procure the 1,500 sets of 5MW wind turbines enables the government to save the procurement of nine million metric tons of coal used in coal-fired power plants.

Taiwan's present energy policy calls for renewable energy to account for 0.6% of the total energy consumed in the nation, with such proportion to increase to 5% by 2020, still lagging those set by the highly industrialized nations.

Citing a nation that is far ahead in renewable energy, Yuan Chuan Energy general manager H.Y. Lin said that Denmark has been adopting renewable energy to cut emission of greenhouse gases since 1990, with its offshore wind turbines generating over 20% of Danish power demand in 2010. England plans to generate 20% of its total energy via renewable power by 2020. And Germany meets 16.5% of total energy demand with renewable power.

China is leading the world in terms of newly-installed wind turbine capacity due to efforts to develop such energy over the past several years, where the nation has three of the world's top-10 wind turbine manufacturers.

Track Record
Yuan Chuan is currently a heavyweight supplier of raw materials and energy in China. Swancor mainly supplies resins for windpower blades to China's top-10 windpower operators, as well as recently announcing to have received orders from the U.S. and Europe.

Focusing on energy development projects, Yuan Chuan, established in 1998, has participated in the development of independent power plants in Taiwan by cooperating with power and energy conglomerates from Japan and England.

Having ventured into offshore wind power in 2004, Yuan Chuan has leased offshore land in Changhua, Yunlin and Penghu counties from the National Property Administration to develop windpower projects.

Red Blades Windtek, founded in 2008, is a leading supplier of windpower blades in China, mainly supplying blades ranging from 37.5M to 50M for multi-megawatt wind turbines. Its four factories in northeast, northwest and eastern China manufacture high-performance blades with leading technology and advanced composites for local and overseas markets. The company says its blades are GL (Germanischer Lloyd) certified and produced with continually optimized production process in ISO9001:2008 approved facilities.

Registered in the Cayman Islands, Yeong Guan, having applied to go public on the Taiwan Stock Exchange on September 29, 2010, produces high-quality customized ductile iron castings and grey iron castings via a hand molding process. The castings are integral parts for plastic injection molding machines, large precision machine tools, large wind turbines (hubs and support frames), gas turbines for power generation, high-speed color printing presses and medical equipment.

Yeong Guan, in the first half of this year, generated 43% of revenues from castings for wind turbines, and 30% from castings for plastic injection molding machines. Its top-10 customers are wind turbine makers, plastic injection molding machine manufacturers and medical equipment producers.

Operating primarily in Ningbo City, Zhejiang province; Dongguan, Guangdong province; and Liyang, Jiangsu province in China, Yeong Guan owns four foundries, one casting machine shop and one scrap metal recycling plant.