Great Leap Forward in Offshore Wind Power Industry, Industry Cluster Settle in Taichung HarborIndustrial Development Bureau, MOEA

China Steel Cooperation and Taichung Port of Taiwan International Ports Corporation, Ltd. signed "Building of Offshore Wind Industry Assembly Harbor and Industrial Park" Memorandum of Understanding today (July 3). The MOU was signed by Vice President and CEO Chen Shao-Liang of Taichung Port, Taiwan International Ports Corporation, Ltd. and Vice President Hsu Wen-Du of China Steel Cooperation, under the witness of Director General Shen Jong-Chin of Industrial Development Bureau, MOEA and Director General Chi Wen-Jong of Maritime and Port Bureau, MOTC.


According to the MOU, location for the industry cluster is Pier 2, supplied by Taichung Port of Taiwan International Ports Corporation, Ltd.. Development of this first East Asia wind turbine assembly and transport harbor is to be under the supervision of China Steel Corporation. A 74.28 hectares area within the pier is mapped off as the industrial park for offshore wind industry cluster. The industrial park will have a standard testing and certification factory, which will draw six related companies to the area.


Taiwan's wind farm conditions are among the best in the world, making it an optimal place to develop offshore wind industry. After the Ministry of Economic Affairs' announcement of the "Offshore Wind Power Demonstration Incentive Program" in 2012, the Industrial Development Bureau began to promote offshore wind technology and industrial development.


Director General Shen Jong-Chin of Industrial Development Bureau pointed out at the signing ceremony that the Bureau's short- and mid-term strategy is to foster development and investment of the industry through model wind farms, while its long-term strategy is to develop wind farm blocks to promote domestic supply chain. More importantly, the Bureau wishes to foster the involvement of domestic benchmark enterprises into leading the development and investment of offshore wind industry so that Taiwan could benefit from industry clusters.


In the future, industrial development strategy will be on promoting a value chain of upstream raw materials, midstream components and downstream complete systems. This value chain will lead to the formation of financial investment/insurance, engineering consultancy, marine vessel and other related industries to build an autonomous domestic offshore wind power industrial chain. Furthermore, the goal of the industrial park is to build 600 offshore wind turbines, which will have a total estimated market value of NTD700 billion by 2030, and provide 19,000 employment opportunities to the people of Taiwan.