September 3, 2020
Taiwan

CAA reiterates opposition to wind farm off Taoyuan coast

Focus Taiwan | Central News Agency | 09/03/2020 | focustaiwan.tw

Taiwan’s national aviation authority on Thursday reiterated its opposition to building a wind farm off the coast of Taoyuan due to concerns over flight safety at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport.

The Civil Aeronautics Administration (CAA) reiterated its position after offshore wind energy developer Wpd Taiwan Energy Co., a subsidiary of German-based Wpd AG, held a press conference earlier in the day in response to the rejection of its application to build a wind farm off the coast of Taoyuan.

Representatives of the company claimed flight safety concerns were not the real reason for CAA’s opposition to the project.

In response, CAA said that nearly 50 million passengers transit through Taoyuan airport annually and passenger safety is absolutely an issue of concern, adding that it has opposed building wind farms off the Taoyuan coast 23 times since 2015.

The CAA said it is opposed to Wpd Taiwan’s plan to build an offshore wind farm due to concerns it could affect flights from Taoyuan airport.

However, based on its support for the development of green energy and considering that Wpd Taiwan’s Liwei project will not be built in areas where the installation of wind power turbines is restricted, the CAA agreed to allow the offshore wind energy developer to conduct an aviation safety assessment in connection with the wind power project.

CAA said that the results of that assessment indicate the installation of wind turbines near the airport could have a negative impact on aviation communication and navigation.

It further added that Wpd Taiwan has not presented concrete measures to solve the problem but has rather chosen to ignore the issue.

In such a situation, the CAA said it expressed its opposition to the project in a submission to the Bureau of Energy.

(By Wang Shu-fen and Evelyn Kao)

Enditem/AW

URL to article:  https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2020/09/03/caa-reiterates-opposition-to-wind-farm-off-taoyuan-coast/