TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — As Taiwan works to speed up its transition toward renewable energy, the government’s focus on wind energy has highlighted ENERCON Taiwan’s role in manufacturing, installing, and maintaining onshore wind turbines.

ENERCON, the largest wind turbine manufacturer in Germany, has been a leading force in the world’s wind energy industry for the past three decades, with production facilities on three continents and offices in 32 countries. In Taiwan, the company has installed over 200 wind turbines, making it the leading wind turbine provider in Taiwan.

According to ENERCON Taiwan, onshore wind energy costs the least among all renewable energy types. Compared to offshore wind turbines and solar panels, electricity generated by onshore wind turbines costs only half, giving onshore wind energy the ability to compete with traditional fossil fuels.

Most of ENERCON’s wind turbines in Taiwan are located on the west coast, from New Taipei City to Yunlin County as well as in the outlying Penghu County, where the company installed its first turbines as early as 2002. As of 2022, about 70% of onshore wind turbines in Taiwan are from ENERCON.

During an exclusive tour inside a wind turbine’s nacelle, ENERCON wind turbine technician Helen Wu (吳詩渝) told Taiwan News that the E-70 wind turbine model reaches full capacity when wind speeds reach 12 meters per second. At full capacity, the wind turbine can generate 2,370 kilowatts an hour — enough to power an average household for seven to eight months.

The nacelle serves as the heart of the wind turbine, housing control units that manage the direction and rotation of the turbine as well as machinery that manages the electricity generated. During the summer, temperatures inside nacelles can reach as high as 55 degrees Celsius as technicians crawl in and out of narrow spaces.

Fortunately, technicians are not stationed in nacelles all the time. ENERCON has a monitoring center overseeing all of its wind turbines; when a wind turbine malfunctions, it sends a fault code to the control system, allowing technicians to identify the source of the problem before being dispatched for repairs.

Wu also explained that each turbine is equipped with a storm control system, a component that is especially important for wind turbines in typhoon-prone Taiwan. The system is able to adjust the angle and slow down the turbine when winds surpass a certain speed, thus controlling the amount of power that goes through the blades on the windward side.