A committee of Taiwan’s governmental watchdog has claimed the Ministry of Economic Affairs has made mistakes in the rollout of island’s offshore wind policy.
The Control Yuan has published a report, which has criticised Taipei’s approach to selecting projects in auctions.
The local supply chain is also not yet equipped to meet the needs of for the offshore wind development plans, according to the report.
In addition, the committee claims the feed-in-tariff rate did not take into account the global falling levelised cost of electricity and, as a result, is too high.
The MOE last month proposed lowering the FIT rate even further for 2019 and is now discussing the cut with industry.
The Ministry issued a statement arguing against some of the report’s findings and said its approach has been “consistent”.
“Through the offshore wind power policy, not only can Taiwan’s energy transformation be accelerated, but the follow-up will be steadily promoted to set aside 5.5 GW of offshore wind,” it said.
An energy analyst in Taiwan said the final consequences of the Control Yuan report are still unclear.
The Global Wind Energy Council has meanwhile called on Taipei to rethink the proposed 12.7% cut to the feed-in tariff for 2019
Projects awarded capacity in the first auction last year could be affected by any reduction. Wind farms that got the nod in the second competitive auction are unaffected.
“The government must now avoid introducing damaging and unhelpful changes to contracts to ensure that these promises materialise into long-term investments that will create tens of thousands of skilled jobs and provide clean, competitive power for Taiwan’s economy,” said GWEC chief executive Ben Backwell.
“Looking at the last auction prices should not lead Taiwan’s government to retrospectively change the terms for the first round of projects, which it’s worth remembering – haven’t been built yet,” added Backwell.
“It took Europe over 20 years to bring prices down to their present ultra-competitive level. If Taiwan allows developers to build the projects they have been awarded and invest in the supply chain and skills, it can create its market in less than half the time and become an economic hub for offshore wind in Asia.”