Brian Hioeby Brian Hioe
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Photo Credit: SSR2000/WikiCommons/CC BY-SA 3.0
WIND FARM DEVELOPMENT in Changhua was again in the news, with an offshore wind farm in Fangyuan Township coming under scrutiny in August last year over the potential impact on aquaculture. Clam and oyster farming is a prominent industry in Fangyuan Township.
Specifically, the offshore wind project would affect the six-kilometer intertidal zone that extends along the coast. However, the project would extend underwater cables through the area in a manner that local farmers and environmental advocates state would harm the local environment as well as impact the livelihood of farmers. Local farmers have cited the harm to aquaculture from previous projects, in affecting the cleanliness of seawater, reducing marine biodiversity, and leading to longer times for oysters to mature.
The offshore wind project passed an environmental impact assessment in 2018. Yet the project was later revised. As a result, the project is currently in the process of a second environmental impact assessment. Local environmental advocates and farmers have criticized this process, in that some of the cables that would pass through the intertidal zone are not included in the report. The Changhua county government, too, has criticized this lack of information. The capacity of the offshore wind project has also not been approved by the Ministry of Economic Affairs.
Developers will next be required to submit additional documentation by November as part of the environmental impact assessment process. But this is not the only time that wind farms have run up against concerns from environmental advocates and aquaculture farmers in recent memory.
In August last year, demonstrators from Dacheng Township also protested plans by a developer to construct three wind power turbines on a coastal levee. The wind power turbines would generate a combined 12.78 megawatts.
The wind power project is the rare example of a development project that did not pass an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA), with the recommendation of the panel that the project not proceed after three meetings. Between 2020 and 2023, all projects were approved by the Ministry of Environment.
Local residents criticized the project on a number of grounds. For one, a number of residences and barns are nearby. Although development plans state that there are 12 homes nearby, within 500 meters of the turbines, in actuality, there are 80 houses. And though original plans were for four turbines, scaling this back to three turbines, this still affects homes in the vicinity. Some homes are only 65 meters away from wind turbines, while schools are 1,300 meters away. Many residents of the area are elderly farmers. Furthermore, experts have warned that the soil in the area is vulnerable to liquefaction.
To this extent, the project is significant for agriculture, aquaculture, and biodiversity. 70% of Taiwan’s national supply of freshwater clams is farmed in the area, an industry worth more than 200 million NT. 40% of Changhua duck farming is also in the area. Noise frequencies from turbines are thought to affect milkfish and clams farmed in the area, as well as other livestock such as ducks, hens, sheep, and pigs. Indeed, when demonstrating outside of the Ministry of Environment, protesters brought local ducks.
In a similar timeframe, there were also protests against offshore wind farm development in Yilan. The project would build 14 wind turbines across seven kilometers of coastline, spanning Wujie township and Su’ao township. Local residents fear that wetlands and local biodiversity will be affected.
It is increasingly the case that wind power projects lead to protests from local residents, then. In particular, at a time when the KMT leans into attacks on renewable energies as being dangerous and untested, this may add to such perceptions. For its part, the Ministry of the Environment has stated that it neither supports nor opposes such projects.
But the problem at hand may not, in fact, be renewables themselves but the culture by which energy projects are implemented in Taiwan. One notes that the current appointees to the committee responsible for Environmental Impact Assessments have been highly criticized by environmental groups, who note that there are no appointments from non-government environmental groups and that the majority of appointees were engineers. This removed seats previously held by individuals from medical or public health backgrounds. It can be expected that this will affect the process by which EIAs are carried out in Taiwan going forward.