Bloomberg reported that Taiwan Power Company plans to spend DWT 8 billion building 50 wind turbines by 2015 to help cut greenhouse gas emissions.

Ms Tu Yueh-yuan CEO of Taiwan Power Company said that will add to 106 turbines already in operation and 56 under construction. The state run utility favors wind power over other forms of renewable sources, such as solar energy.

Ms Tu said that “On wind power, we will build as much as we can because it’s more economical. It costs Taiwan Power, known as Taipower, between DWT 2 and DWT 3 to generate 1 kilowatt hour of electricity using the wind compared with as much as DWT 20 for solar energy.

Mr Ma Ying-jeou President of Taiwan, who took office in May last year has pledged to cut carbon emissions to 2000 levels by 2025.

Ms Tu said that last month, the legislature approved a law on electricity pricing to ensure reasonable profits for power generated from renewable sources. Taipower is studying the possibility of setting up offshore wind mills. Taipower, which generates about 75% of the electricity the island uses and monopolizes transmission, favors wind energy also because of limited new sites for hydropower plants. The government owns 97% of the utility.

Data on Taipower’s Web site showed that Wind turbines accounted for 0.9% of Taiwan’s total installed capacity as of May, compared with 12% for hydropower plants, including 6.6% from pump storage power stations.

Power produced at pump-storage stations isn’t considered to be from a renewable source because fossil fuels are sometimes used in the pumping of water kept for electricity generation.

(Sourced from Bloomberg)