MIRDC, NTU Energy Research Institute, and the Netherlands Organisation for applied scientific research (TNO) held the Taiwan-Netherlands Cooperative Offshore Wind Talent Training Program kick-off conference online on January 26, 2021 at the Maritime Technology Innovation Center. The program aims to cultivate the trainers for the domestic wind energy industry. Seed trainer cultivation will officially activate after the seminar, in hopes of more outstanding and professional talents to be trained for the wind energy industry in Taiwan.

Since 2018, MIRDC has promoted the offshore wind energy industry chain under the guidance of the Bureau of Energy, MOEA and accelerated the pace of globalization by collaborating with countries that are wind energy pioneers. The Maritime Technology Innovation Center that was implemented and built by MIRDC with the planning and guidance of the Bureau of Energy, opened on January 11, 2021. Wind energy professionals will be important for globalizing Taiwan’s wind energy industry. After nearly a year of preparation and planning, MIRDC and the NTU Energy Research Institute team formally partnered with TNO to develop the Taiwan-Netherlands Cooperative Offshore Wind Talent Training Program and launch it in 2021. The costs of training team is subsidized by the Dutch government. The trainers from TNO/ECN, TU Delft/DUWIND, and Deltares planned a comprehensive series of courses to introduce the offshore wind energy industry. The first stage will be training 20 seed trainers to transfer technologies and knowledge related to wind farm introduction, ocean and seabed data survey and analysis, offshore wind energy planning and development, wind energy data analysis, wind turbine design, offshore wind farm construction and installation, and offshore wind farm operations and maintenance to Taiwan to fill the critical gap in Taiwan’s development of green energy.

Taiwan is currently actively developing offshore wind energy to meet the goal of 5.7GW by 2025. It is estimated that more than 7,700 industry talents are required for the entire wind turbine construction process. To cultivate talent for the offshore wind industry, MIRDC offers GWO, DNV-GL, and customized courses that meet the needs of the industry at planning, construction and installation, and operations and maintenance stages. MIRDC also provides training sites for customized courses to promote industry development, so that Taiwan’s renewable energy industry can gradually bloom.