Offshore wind to replace nuclear in Taiwan’s power mix: Fitch

More than half of Taiwan’s power project pipeline consists of offshore wind power.

The development of offshore wind projects in Taiwan is seen to boost its non-hydro power renewables and eventually replace nuclear power, Fitch Solutions reported.

Fitch projected that about 3 gigawatts (GW) of additional wind power capacity will come online between the end of 2021 and 2025, which will slightly exceed the decommissioning of nuclear power capacity.

“In order to make up for the drop-in electricity capacity and generation in the power market, the project pipeline for the offshore wind sub-sector has strengthened,” the report read.

Nuclear capacity is expected to be phased out by the end of 2025 as Taiwan is projected to see an average contraction of 46% annually.

This will be replaced by offshore wind, which currently accounted for 51% of Taiwan’s power project pipeline capacity.

Also between end-2021 to 2025, Fitch noted that wind power generation will likely grow by more than six times to 15.6 terawatt-hours (TWh) from 2.4TWh.

“Overall, the strengthening of the wind power sector will contribute to Taiwan's energy security for the power market, partly filling the 27.5TWh generation gap that will be caused by the phasing out of nuclear power,” Fitch added.

“The rest of the nuclear power generation gap will be filled by gas and solar power generation.”