The state-owned Taiwan Power Co. (Taipower) recently announced a plan to invest more than US$12 billion for the development of renewable energy in the next 15 years, with the aim of expanding the country's total installed offshore wind power capacity to 180 megawatts and the total installed solar power capacity to 100 MW by 2030.
The company also aims to bring the land-based wind energy capacity and thermal power capacity up to a total of 70 MW by that time.
Over the past 15 years, Taipower has completed six wind power projects, involving the installation of 169 wind turbines. The company has completed the first phase of a solar energy development project, which includes 16 energy generation plants with total capacity of 1.82 MW. The cumulative installed wind power and solar power capacity is about 30 MW, according to the company.
Work on an offshore wind power development project in Changhua County's Fangyuan is set to start in 2018, which is expected to attract over US$1.34 billion in investment in related fields.
The company also plans to harness energy from geothermal resources in volcanic areas of Taitung and Tatun District in Taipei's Yangmingshan in the next four years.
It has also concluded feasibility studies on several hydro-power generation projects using water resources from Liyutan Reservoir in Miaoli, Hushan Reservoir in Yunlin and Jiji Weir in Nantou. Work on the Liyutan Reservoir project is due to start in 2017 and the hydro-power plant there is set to start commercial operations in 2020, according to Taipower.
Source: Focus Taiwan
Edmond Yin (h896@taitra.org.tw)