Offshore wind farm in northern Taiwan can provide electricity for 380,000 households

Taiwan's Formosa 2 offshore wind project has been completed with an inauguration ceremony held at the Waipu Fishing Port in Miaoli.

Located off the coast of Miaoli's Zhunan Township, developers say the wind farm is capable of producing 376MW of electricity to power the equivalent of approximately 380,000 households. The project was a joint Taiwanese, Japanese, and Australian development.

President Tsai Ing-wen attended the opening ceremony and said the project represented Taiwan's steady development of green energy, which is crucial to Taiwan's future exports. 'More and more important companies in Taiwan, including TSMC, have joined the RE100 alliance, which means that they will use 100% green electricity in the future,' a statement from Tsai's office read.

Despite the progress, Taiwan remains reliant on fossil fuels for energy, and the percentage of energy provided by renewables is negligible. Taiwan's wind energy accounted for less than 1% of the country's energy consumption in 2021, according to the government's statistics department.

Taiwan has also been criticized by the Climate Change Performance Index for its absence of oil and gas phase-out plans. According to 2021 data from Taiwan's statistics department, coal and natural gas energy production accounted for just over 93% of all energy consumed.

Nuclear power accounted for 5.6% of Taiwan's electricity production in 2021. The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) scrapped the completion of a fourth nuclear reactor in 2021 after referendum results provided a democratic mandate to do so.

Despite Taiwan's poor record, the 2023 CCPI report noted 'no country is doing enough to prevent dangerous climate change.' The Taiwan government has a stated goal achieving net-zero carbon emissions by 2050.