Taiwan steps up green energy development

The Taiwan government is implementing a Green Energy Industries and Technological Innovation plan to boost renewable energy development.

The plan focuses on developing green energy and its related industries and technologies, said the Bureau of Energy.

As of the end of 2017, ground-mounted and floating (on surface of water bodies) PV power stations and rooftop systems totaled 1.4GWp in installation capacity; onshore land-based wind farms reached 684MW, and offshore wind power totaled 8MW.

For energy saving and management, state-run Taiwan Power Company has completed installation of 23,000 high-voltage and 10,000 low-voltage smart power meters.

In 2017, the production value for Sunlux Energy, the only Taiwan-based polysilicon maker, reached NT$200 million (US$6.7 million); NT$51.1 billion for 10 solar ingot and wafer makers; NT$95.5 billion for 52 solar cell makers; NT$14.1 billion for 17 PV module makers; NT$15.2 billion for PV components suppliers; and NT$35.9 billion for 244 PV power generation projects.

International wind power turbine makers and installation contractors, including Germany-based Enercon and Spain-based Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy, have set up Asia Pacific operational headquarters in Taiwan. The world's top-5 wind farm developers, including Denmark-based Orsted, Australia-based Macquarie Capital, Canada-based Northland Power and Denmark-based Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners, have applied for developing 14 wind farms in Taiwan with total installation capacity of 8.35GW.

The government will soon start developing a smart green energy science town in Tainan, southern Taiwan, to function as a base for R&D, demonstration, testing and certification of green energy technologies.

Source: Ministry of Economic Affairs, compiled by Digitimes, January 2018

Article translated by Adam Hwang