German wind power developer wpd AG has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with CR Classification Society, two Taiwan’s research and development bodies, and representatives from engineering think tanks, and will assist Taiwan in reaching its aim of increasing domestic financial operators’ willingness to invest in offshore wind farms.
The CR Classification Society (CR), the Metal Industries Research & Development Center (MIRDC), the Taiwan Institute of Economic Research (TIER) and engineering think tank representatives signed the agreement with wpd on 19 October , in the presence of Executive Yuan’s Office of Energy and Carbon Reduction CEO Yang Jing-Tang and Bureau of Standards, Metrology and Inspection (BSMI) Director General Liou Ming-Jong.
To gain the confidence of domestic financial operators , the CR, the MIRDC and the TIER have, under the BSMI’s guidance, formed a technical team specialising in third party certification and funding for renewable energy projects.
The MoU with wpd will facilitate exchanges with foreign consultants, enable Taiwan to learn from successful projects and align Taiwan’s renewable energy finance with international practices. Under the cooperation mechanism, CR, MIRDC and TIER can visit a site planned by wpd and therefore build up Taiwan’s capacity to conduct certification and funding.
To achieve having renewable energy account for 20% of power generation, an estimated 1.75 trillion NTD (approx. EUR 49.7 billion) of funding is required for the development of photovoltaic and offshore wind power in Taiwan , according to Taiwan’s Ministry of Economic Affairs, who further explained that one of the priority tasks of developing renewable energy in Taiwan is to make known its potential business benefits and direct the flow of domestic capital into the renewable energy sector.