TECO Makes Strong Move Into Wind Power

After years of development, Teco Electric and Machinery is ready to tap the growing global market for wind turbines. It is already beginning to do so, in fact, having recently landed an order for 30 2MW wind turbines from the Thuan Nhien Phone (TNP) wind farm in Vietnam's Binh Thuan province. The first 10 turbines are to be delivered before the end of this year and the remaining 20 in 2012.

TECO licensed wind-turbine technology from the American Superconductor Corp. (AMSC), a leading energy-technology firm, in 2008, and subsequently promoted the formation of the Taiwan Wind-Power Alliance with the aim of developing a vertically integrated industrial chain. The company introduced its 2MW wind turbine in the first quarter of 2010, becoming the world's eight large-scale manufacturer of wind turbines.

In addition to Vietnam, TECO is also pursuing orders for contract assembly in Taiwan, China, and Southeast Asia. So far, it has signed letters of intent for the purchase of more than 100 wind turbines.

“TECO has entered the harvest stage in its wind-power business,” remarks the company's chairman, C.K. Liu, who is optimistic about the global wind-power market, especially in the wake of Japan's earthquake and nuclear-power crisis. He claims that wind power is a highly competitive method of power generation, since it is a green energy source that costs just NT$1.7 to generate one KW. This is more than the NT$0.6 it takes to produce one KW by nuclear power and NT$1.4 per KW by thermal power, but far less than the more than NT$10 it takes for solar power.

The outlook for offshore wind-power generation is especially promising, Liu believes, thanks to the difficulty of finding suitable onshore sites. The offshore area of the Changhua Coastal Industrial Zone, for instance, boasts 3,500 hours per year with suitable conditions for wind-power generation, giving it more than the 3,000-hours considered necessary for a premium site. Being relatively shallow, the seas off the western coast of Taiwan are particularly suited to the installation of wind turbines.

A major technological breakthrough was achieved recently when a German company installed 7MW offshore wind turbines—more than three times the size of the largest onshore models--in the North Sea. If Taiwan should decide to decommission all three of its nuclear power plants currently in operation, the electricity shortfall could be made up by the installation of 800 such wind turbines.

TECO is also hard at work in other green-energy sectors. It has allied with SIM-Drive of Japan, for example, to produce wheel motors for electric cars. (PL, June 2011)