Taiwan increased its target for generating power from renewable sources after a new law spurred demand for emissions-free electricity.
The nation aims to have 16 percent of installed power capacity from renewable energy sources by 2025, compared with a previous target of 15.1 percent, Linda Chen, chief secretary of the Bureau of Energy, said at a forum in Taipei yesterday.
Taiwan’s government set minimum wholesale prices for electricity generated by solar panels and wind turbines in December at higher levels than for those for power from fossil fuels to spur production of renewable energy. President Ma Ying- jeou, who took office in May 2008, has pledged to cut emissions to 2000 levels by 2025. Lawmakers approved the Renewable Energy Development Act last year.
“Demand for renewable energy is robust,” Chen said. Renewable energy may account for 10 percent of installed electricity capacity by the end of the year, compared with 8.2 percent currently, she said.
Feed-in tariffs, or the prices that state-run utility Taiwan Power Co. pays generators, are at least NT$11.12 (35 cents) per kilowatt-hour for photovoltaic solar panels and NT$2.38 for wind farms, the Bureau of Energy said in a statement on its website in December. That compares with an average cost of NT$2.06 per kilowatt-hour from fossil fuels.
The government has received 693 applications to build 405 megawatts of renewable energy capacity based on the preferred tariffs, the energy bureau said on its website Sept. 24. One megawatt can supply about 800 U.S. homes.
Energy Intensity
The government is taking steps to cut energy intensity, or the amount of energy used per unit of gross domestic product, by half before 2025, Chen said. The measures include subsidies for purchases of equipment that conserve energy, she said.
The state also has proposed an energy tax, Chen said. There is no timetable for implementation of the tax and the details are being debated, according to Chen.
The industrialized island releases about three times more heat-trapping gases per person than the world average, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
The island’s installed power capacity was 40,823 megawatts as of July, according to Taiwan Power, the monopoly grid operator. Natural gas-fueled generators accounted for 37 percent of the total capacity, coal-fired stations 29 percent and nuclear reactors 13 percent, according to Taipower. Other sources included oil and hydroelectric power.
