Can offshore wind electricity in Taiwan be sustainable?: the case of Taiwan's first offshore wind project, Formosa 1 in Miaoli

Abstract

While sustainability is implementing all over the world to strive to balance the development and environment, Taiwan is also committed to the transition towards renewable energy, and offshore wind electricity is one of the emerging industries with potential, therefore taking its newly operated project as a case study. The purpose of the research is to determine whether offshore wind electricity is a viable solution to achieve inclusive sustainability in Taiwan and the concept of procedural justice is involving to examine the planning and construction stages of the development while environmental justice is applied to evaluate the overall outcome from the perspective of the affected community. As a qualitative research, the thesis conducted two-month fieldwork in Miaoli County, where the coastal fishing area is the site of the country’s first and only wind farm, Formosa 1 which started commercial operations in December 2019, with interviewees including fishers, members of fishery association, government officials, and scholars. The result shows the polarized reaction of the main affected group, the fisher, to the construction owning to the difference in the degree of influence on the two main fishing methods in the area, “gillnetting” and “pole and line”. A small group of the fisher felt unjust while the other recognized the value of the offshore wind project. On the other hand, despite varying degrees, when procedural justice was sought to reduce the losses during the process and the consensus on the outcome was discussed to maximize the long-term gains, environmental justice was actively balanced in the project. Being one of the pioneer academic research to review the case after its completion, this paper concludes that, as Taiwan’s first offshore wind project, Formosa 1 did not fully convince everyone with its sustainability, but with the experiences, it did pave a relatively smooth way for the future development towards sustainability.