Taiwan - Electricity producer to invest US$244m in wind project

Taiwan Power Co., the island's dominant electricity producer, plans to spend NT$8 billion (US$244 million) building 50 wind turbines by 2015 to help cut greenhouse-gas emissions. That will add to 106 turbines already in operation and 56 under construction, Tu Yueh-yuan, the company's chief engineer, said in an interview in Taipei yesterday. The state-run utility favors wind power over other forms of renewable sources, such as solar energy, Tu said.

“On wind power, we will build as much as we can because it's more economical,” Tu said in her office. It costs Taiwan Power, known as Taipower, between NT$2 and NT$3 to generate one kilowatt-hour of electricity using the wind compared with as much as NT$20 for solar energy, she said.

Taiwan's President Ma Ying-jeou, who took office in May last year, has pledged to cut carbon emissions to 2000 levels by 2025. Last month, the legislature approved a law on electricity pricing to ensure “reasonable profits” for power generated from renewable sources. Taipower is studying the possibility of setting up offshore wind mills, Tu said