Taiwan may spend more than NT$100 billion (US$3 billion) during the next three years to increase wind power capacity 10-fold and cut coal and gas imports.

“Renewable energy can help us reduce dependence on overseas resources,“ Wang Yunn-ming, deputy director general of Taiwan’s energy bureau, said in an interview in Taipei before a press conference on the plan on Sept. 28.

Wind may help curb the use of coal and natural gas, which currently each fuel about a third of Taiwan’s power generators. The target of constructing turbines with capacity of 2,159 megawatts compared with 217.2 megawatts now may prove over- ambitious, said economist Liang Chi-yuan.

“There’s a big question mark over whether Taiwan can build so many wind turbines,“ said Liang, from Academia Sinica in Taipei, the island’s state research institute. “The best locations are already taken.“

Generating electricity from wind costs about NT$1.7 for each kilowatt-hour, compared with the average of NT$1.3 in Taiwan, Wang said. State-run utility Taiwan Power Co. pays wind turbine operators NT$2 per kilowatt-hour, he said. The island imports all its coal and more than 90 percent of its gas needs.

“Wind power technology is the most mature among renewables, and its costs are close to those of traditional generation,“ he said.

The figure of more than NT$100 billion will include spending on Taiwan’s first undersea electricity cables to transmit power from offshore sites as far away as the Penghu archipelago, about 45 kilometers (28 miles) from the main island, Wang said.

Offshore turbine capacity may total 360 megawatts by 2010, according to a report from the bureau, distributed at an industry conference on Sept. 28. That may eventually rise to 1,200 megawatts, Wang said, without giving a time frame.

Wind farms, both those built on land and in the sea, may account for about 5 percent of Taiwan’s total installed capacity by 2010, he said. That compares with 0.4 percent as of July, according to Taiwan Power’s Web site.

This month the government started accepting applications from private companies for building the island’s first offshore wind farm, citing difficulties in finding onshore sites. Permission for a total of 300 megawatts will be granted within three years.

The government is promoting wind power, because “we have plentiful wind resources,“ Wang said. The island’s turbines are productive for as much as 35 percent of the time, compared with 20 percent in Germany, he said.

PIN/ Chinapost.Com.Tw