**1. Introduction**

The shift toward a green(er) renewable energy policy has been on the agenda for most of the industrial countries and is supported by overarching programs such as the *United Nations Development Program* to mitigate effects from climate change [1]. The implementation is not undisputed due to the actual technical as well as financial feasibility and timing in particular. Be it by reducing nuclear power sources or by eliminating energy from conventional sources such as coal, gas, or oil, tools for renewable energy need to be developed, and their implementation needs to be enforced systematically in order to cover increasing national demands. Renewable energy comes, although not exclusively, either from solar energy through the means of photovoltaic and thermal installations, from wind energy through the use of wind turbines, or from hydro energy using hydroelectric generators, often connected to reservoirs (e.g., [2]).

For Taiwan's consumption in 2017, 98% of energy was imported from fossil resources such as oil (48%), coal (30%), natural gas (15%), and nuclear power (4%). Less than 2% of the indigenous 2% of energy was contributed by renewable energy (biomass, hydroelectricity, photovoltaic, and wind). The installed national capacities, however, covered 5276 MW of energy in 2017 with 39% conventional hydroelectric energy, 34% photovoltaic energy, and 13% wind energy [3]. Due to the dependence on energy imports from other countries as well as a change of direction with respect to the implementation of a green energy policy, the government is actively encouraging and supporting developments in this domain.

The county of Yunlin in central Taiwan is one of the areas in which green energy projects are being developed leading to a successive change of the landscape with potential long-term effects on the farmers and farmland. Together with Chiayi County in the south, Yunlin County is located in the Chianan alluvial plain built by sediments connected to the Alishan mountain range in central Taiwan. As such the plains are characterized by farmland agriculture predominantly focused on rice, sugarcane, peanuts, and corn as well as sweet potato. In Yunlin County farmland covers about 68% of the total area. A high density of fish ponds are found along Yunlin's coast with aqua culture focused on, e.g., clams and tilapia. However, Yunlin County has been suffering from structural problems over the last decade which are related to anthropogenically caused subsidence of the land (likely) due to excessive groundwater pumping. Apart from potential destabilization of the high-speed rail construction (**Figure 2**), it causes structural problems on buildings and potentially a significant salinization of farmland (e.g., [4]).

Due to the gently sloping plains of the Yunlin alluvium, rivers contribute a significant amount of hydroelectric energy. Yunlin County hosts the third largest coal power plants in Taiwan, the Mailiao Power Plant (**Figure 2**), with a total capacity of 4200 MW distributed over 7 units [5]. Wind energy has become an important topic with the conceptualization of a number of on- and offshore wind turbines recently. Currently, Yunlin hosts less than 20 coastal onshore wind turbines which constitute no more than 5% of the national wind turbines in operation. With these, a capacity of about 35 MW can be estimated. However, recent investor agreements in late 2018 consolidated plans for setting up an offshore farm with a capacity of 8x80 MW [6] (cf. **Figure 2**).
