Taiwan cuts offshore FiT; Five wind power companies may withdraw

Taiwan’s Ministry of Economic Affairs has recently announced a 12.71% cut to its offshore wind feed-in tariff. To response, five major offshore wind power development foreign companies asked government to do prudent assessment to this decision today.

Ørsted, a power company based in Denmark claimed that if the electricity sales contracts agreement cannot be reached this year, it may be difficult to make a final investment decision for 2019 and the contract with local suppliers may be renegotiated. CIP also stated that the previous NTD16.5bn local contract signed with Century Iron & Steel Industrial "hopefully will not be our first, but also the last large local procurement contract."

All offshore wind power development foreign companies that have qualified for wind farm development, including Ørsted, CIP, WPD, NPI, YuShan Energy, jointly stated "Unacceptable" after the announcement. They have to  re-evaluate the industrialization plan and the influence to the wind farm construction schedule. They believed that the relevant policies’ flip-flop could seriously affect Taiwan's reputation in the international market and the confidence of foreign and local investors.

Taiwan’s solar photovoltaic industry also stated that “it is hard to understand and accept”. They pointed out that the drop in the tariff rate should not exceed 4.25% as the international average. Additionally, the subsidy for self-built booster stations should increase by 6%. Managers criticized that the tariff rate is not down to earth. The drop of tariff rate is “haste makes waste” to the industry, and Taiwan's photovoltaic industry may be devastated.