Taiwan fined four ships NT$ 100,000 each, which is around USD$ 3,300, for violating the new emissions control area (ECA) regulations, according to local media citing a note from the Ministry of Transportation and Communications.
The ships in particular were registered in the Marshall Islands, Panama, Hong Kong and Singapore. Two of the violations took place at the port of Taichung while the other two occurred at the port of Kaohsiung. The exacts dates for the offences were not made public.
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It is said that Taiwan has required ships accessing its ports to use bunkers with maximum Sulphur content of 0.50% since the beginning of January.
In fact, the Ministry of Transportation and Communications (MOTC) issued a guidance, advising that from 1st January 2019 vessels entering international commercial port areas in Taiwan, should use fuel oil with a Sulphur content of 0.5% or less.
Vessels can comply with the sulphur cap by directly using 0.5% sulphur fuel or using scrubbers, as well as other methods such as onboard blending of marine fuel or the use of LNG. Ships may also use equivalent ways of emission reduction, according with the MARPOL Convention.
What is more, Taiwanese offshore wind farm produced its first power in September, as Ørsted announced that the second phase of Formosa began generating its first power. Formosa 1 will consist of 20 Siemens Gamesa 6MW offshore wind turbines, from which 10 have already been installed, whereas six of them generated power.
The generated power set a milestone for Taiwan’s offshore wind industry and marked the first step towards achieving the Taiwanese government’s ambitions of installing 5.7GW offshore wind by 2025.
