The “2018 Kaohsiung Marine Technology Industrial Innovation Zone Forum” was held by MIRDC at Garden Villa, Kaohsiung on November 13, 2018. The world-leading developers of wind farms, system integrators, certification institutes, talents cultivation agencies, and marine engineering operators were invited to this forum, including wpd offshore solutions Gmbh, Ørsted Taiwan Ltd., Yushan Energy Co., Ltd., Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy Pty Ltd., Taiwan Branch, MHI Vestas Offshore Wind, Maersk Training A/S, DNV GL, GeoSea N.V. Belgium, and Royal Boskalis Westminster N.V. etc., attracting nearly 300 participants from industry, official, academic, and research sectors home and abroad.
The forum began with the addresses from Wen-Sheng Tseng, Deputy Minister of Ministry of Economic Affairs, Hwung-hweng Hwung, Council Minister of Ocean Affairs Council, Fu-Chin Tsai, Deputy Mayor of Kaohsiung City, and Jen-Yi Lin, Chairman of MIRDC. Mr. Tseng stated that the offshore wind energy industry has been promoted through staged methods of demonstration wind farms and potential wind sites in the past 2 years, and Kaohsiung Marine Technology Industrial Innovation Zone is therefore under establishment in Xingda Harbor, Kaohsiung. Cultivating talents in the field of marine technology and establishing indigenous marine capabilities are the objectives in the first stage of the Zone, hoping that in the foreseeable future, industry, official, academic, and research sectors (including the Ocean Affairs Council, MIRDC, CSC, CSBC, etc.) can work together to facilitate long-term development in terms of offshore wind turbine as well as relevant industries of marine technology in Taiwan, a maritime country. In addition to addresses made by honorable guests on expectation of the future development in the Zone, an MOU was also signed with wind farm developers, wind turbine system integrators, and talents cultivation agency to establish a platform for talent cultivation exchange in the hope of closer collaboration among domestic industrial chains.
For the antemeridian keynote speeches in the forum, world-leading manufacturers of marine technology and offshore wind energy, such as Northern Netherlands Offshore Wind Supply Chain, Maersk Training A/S, Maritime Research Institute Netherlands, DNV GL, Royal Boskalis Westminster N.V. etc. were invited to share their successful experiences in talent cultivation, underwater technology application, basic engineering consultation, and marine engineering localization; for the post meridian parts, topics of talent cultivation and innovating development for marine technology and offshore wind energy in Taiwan were discussed, describing how offshore wind energy can be strengthened in Taiwan and further connects to the world.
In recent years, the government has chosen wind energy and solar energy as the main items for developing renewable energy. In order to fulfill the policy requirements of “Four Year Plan of Wind Power”, Bureau of Energy, MOEA has planned to establish “Kaohsiung Marine Technology Industrial Innovation Zone” in Xingda Harbor, Kaohsiung. The overall planning includes 1 zone and 3 centers. It is estimated that relevant industries of marine technology and offshore wind energy home and abroad will be introduced, including R&D, manufacturing, construction, operation, maintenance, etc., following the successful examples of world-leading agencies in terms of marine technology industry, particularly in the talent cultivation for offshore wind energy, as the reference for development of the zone in the future and putting into practice to fulfill the needs of actual application. It is believed that, by concerted effort, Taiwan can be the pioneer of offshore wind energy supply chain in Asia-Pacific Region.