On 11 May, the ECCT LCI member Bart Linssen, Service Manager from Solvent Gmb Taiwan Branch, took part in the "Shareable Cities Forum", designed to give attendees the tools to understand how sharing, localism, connectedness and sustainability are taking place in cities worldwide. The forum was hosted by the Taipei City Government's Department of Cultural Affairs. Bart Linssen was one of several speakers elaborating on a topics ranging from public policy and open government to civic engagements and initiatives in the shareable movement. Linssen gave a presentation on community wind farms.

Media exposures from China Post, United Daily News, CNA News, and IDN News are as follows:

Given the alarming rise of CO2 emissions, wind energy provides an ideal and clean alternative to fossil fuels. Now that the cost of wind energy is lower than fossil fuels, it is also a good investment. For Taiwan, renewable energy is especially important for energy security reasons given that Taiwan relies on imports for some 98% of its energy needs.

According to Linssen, Taiwan is currently spending the equivalent of 15% of GDP on energy compared to just 3% in 1990 and this percentage is likely to increase unless Taiwan takes advantage of renewable energy. Another factor in favour of renewables is competition. More and more companies are concerned about having green credentials and have committed to getting their energy from renewables. Examples of companies who plan to meet all their energy needs from renewables include IKEA, Google and Starbucks.

Taiwan is an ideal location for wind energy. Linssen cited an example of one of its turbines which runs 98.2% of the time. He noted that turbines in Taiwan generate double the amount of energy compared to turbines in Germany and, as turbine technology continues to improve, fewer wind turbines will be needed to generate the same amount of electricity.

Given the competitive costs and great potential, companies and communities should consider wind energy as a great investment. Companies with their own generating capacity would save on energy bills, while communities could actually earn money from generating power and selling it to grid. Besides being clean forever, statistics (in terms of accidents) prove that wind energy is safer than any other power source.