Taiwan: RWE reinforces strategic partnership with Asia Cement Corporation

Offshore wind is gaining momentum in Taiwan, where nine gigawatts (GW) of offshore wind capacity is due to be auctioned over the next three years. Against this backdrop RWE and Asia Cement Corporation (ACC) intend to expand their existing strategic partnership to jointly drive the growth of offshore wind in Taiwan and the country’s transition from imported fossils fuels to home grown renewables.

Jens Orfelt, RWE Renewables APAC President for Offshore Wind, explains: “RWE is strongly committed to contributing towards Taiwan’s renewable energy targets. Thanks to our pioneering work in floating wind, combined with a 20 years’ track record in delivering offshore wind projects - safely, on-time and on budget - RWE is very well placed to supply green electricity from this sustainable energy source. Together with our partner ACC we will be investigating several new offshore development projects, which will further strengthen our renewables pipeline in the Asia-Pacific region and lay the foundation for long-term investments in Taiwan.”

The partners intend to jointly develop new offshore wind projects off the west coast of Taiwan - in the county waters of Hsinchu, Taichung and Changhua. Some of the sites are in water depths that are suitable for floating offshore wind, allowing RWE to apply its international experiences gained from three full-size floating demonstrator projects. This perfectly complements the local expertise and market know-how of ACC. RWE, which opened its office in Taiwan in 2018, and ACC is already collaborating successfully in the development of the Chu Feng offshore wind project, that has a planned installed capacity of up to 448 megawatts.

Peter Hsu, Vice-Chairman of Far Eastern Group: “ACC’s collaboration with RWE is an excellent example of ‘the best of both worlds’ - local expertise and world leading international offshore wind farm experience coming together to deliver substantial, sustainable energy to the people of Taiwan and extensive generation of green jobs as a direct consequence. This fits with ACC’s plan to be involved with renewable projects and change our energy profile towards green sources.”

RWE is leading the way to a green energy world

As part of its extensive investment and growth strategy ‘Growing Green’, RWE plans to invest €50 billion gross globally by 2030 in offshore and onshore wind, solar, batteries, flexible generation and hydrogen. The company is thus expanding its powerful, green generation portfolio to 50 GW in the attractive markets of Europe, North America, and the Asia-Pacific Region. Founded in 1898 as a German municipal utility, RWE is today a leading global player in renewables and number 2 worldwide in offshore wind. The company currently operates 17 offshore wind farms in five countries, and is developing and constructing some of the world’s most advanced offshore wind farms. Furthermore RWE aims and is well on track to become also a leader in floating wind and to have 1 GW either in operation or under construction by 2030. To gain experience early, RWE is participating in multiple high-profile floating demo projects in Norway, Spain and the US, each based on different concepts. The most advanced project is the TetraSpar Demonstrator project, which has been recently commissioned off the Norwegian coast near Stavanger in waters as deep as 200 metres.

RWE is looking forward to “Energy Taiwan 2021”
RWE is taking part in Taiwan’s largest annual energy trade fair and conference. This underlines RWE’s ambitions to grow its renewables business in Taiwan and the wider Asia-Pacific region. During the “Energy Taiwan 2021” event, taking place from 8th to 10th December in Taipei, RWE will be one of the leading exhibitors (Hall 2, Booth Q0123a).