TAIPEI: In the port city of Taichung on Taiwan's west coast, a crane hoists into place the end section of a white wind turbine tower that stands almost a hundred metres tall.
"It's a huge demand, less supply situation," Christy Wang, general manager of Orsted Taiwan, said. Orsted monitors cross-strait ties closely, but has not changed its strategy for Taiwan, Wang said, adding that the lifetime of a wind farm is decades.
Next in Orsted's pipeline is its third project in Taiwan, with expected completion in 2025. All the power produced by that 920-megawatt farm for two decades has already been purchased by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company , the world's largest contract chipmaker. With large swathes of Taiwan's territorial waters restricted due to defense, shipping and other uses, offshore wind developers will soon run out of space.
"Real estate for fixed-bottom is becoming exhausted, so you're moving into deeper waters just by progression," said BlueFloat country manager Michael Pinkerton. "There is no insurance you can't buy. It's a question of whether you want to pay the price," insurance broker Clive Lin told offshore wind developers in a packed lecture hall in Taipei.
Three foreign energy firms, including two offshore wind developers, had inquired with Leed about political risk insurance for their Taiwan projects since last year, but so far the initial responses from insurers had been negative, Lin told Reuters.