Following a briefing by the Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA) at Thursday's Cabinet meeting on the current status and future prospects of offshore wind farms, Premier Su Tseng-chang said that the government's Four-year Wind Power Promotion Plan sets an installed wind power capacity target of 5.7 gigawatts by 2025, which would be able to generate 21.5 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity annually. Hitting this target will accelerate Taiwan's push to derive 20 percent of its power needs from renewable sources and help transform the island into a nuclear-free homeland.
The MOEA indicated that the facilities to be installed and the companies that will build them have already been settled for every year of the project. The priorities now are to pick up the pace of administrative work and complete the required basic infrastructure in order to assist developers complete construction of the offshore wind farms on spec and on schedule.
Total aggregate investment through 2025 is estimated to exceed NT$1 trillion (US$32.1 billion), according to the MOEA. Upon completion, the offshore wind turbines will be able to generate about 21.5 billion kilowatt-hours of clean energy annually and create a combined 20,000 jobs. The facilities will also cut yearly carbon emissions by 11.92 million metric tons.