Taiwan’s new administration emphasizes strongly on solar power resource, driving the nation to think more positive toward this industry. Led by local governments, solar systems are gradually installed around the island, especially a landfill solar power plant in Taipei and a rooftop PV system in Tainan, in respectively northern and southern cities.
Taipei: Taiwan’s first landfill solar power plant
Taiwan’s first landfill solar power plant, the “Taipei Energy Hill,” was officially inaugurated on February 17. The 2MWp solar power plant is built in the Fudekeng Environmental Restoration Park, where was once a landfill owned by Taipei City, consisting of approximately 8,000 solar panels. The solar power plant is expected to generate 2,000,000kWh of clean electricity per year, offsetting over 1,000 MT of CO2.
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| Taipei Energy Hill. (Source: Taipei City Government official website) |
Taipei City selected Tatung Corp. as the partner to design, build, own and operate the Taipie Energy Hill. Tatung will sell electricity generated from the plant to Taipower for receiving feed-in tariffs, and Tatung will pay 10% of the rewards to Taipei City, around NT$ 1 million per year, as the land rent.
“The ‘No-Nuke Home’ is an idea that can’t only be talked,” said the Mayor Ko Wen-je on the inauguration. “We have to target at introducing clean and safe renewable energy resources.”
Mayor Ko also noted that Taipei City aims to increase the power consumption ratio of renewable energy resources to 10% by 2025, significantly up from today’s 3%.
Tainan’s largest rooftop PV system built by AUO
AUO is one of the pioneers for Taiwan’s PV generation sector, owning multiple MW-scale solar systems in Taiwan. In response to both the company’s commitment to developing solar energy and Tainan City’s solar target, AUO has completed construction on a 3.87MW rooftop solar array atop of its factory in Tainan, marking the city’s largest-of-its-kind so far.
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| AUO's rooftop PV system in Tainan. (Source: Tainan City Mayor Lai's Facebook page.) |
Tainan government requires factories that consume electricity over a certain volume to install solar systems with capacity of at least 10% of the factory’s contract capacity. According to the rule, AUO’s Tainan factory is required to install at least 1.71MW of solar power.
Basing on AUO’s experience in solar power system development, the company increased its investment and finally built the 3.87MW rooftop solar array. It is not only Tainan’s largest solar array, but also the second private-owned solar power plant with power generation license.
Tainan City is blessed with rich solar resource and wide land, ideal for developing solar power. The City government has targeted at developing 220MW of solar by 2018 all over the city, while the goal have been achieved in late 2016 ahead of the original schedule. Therefore, Tainan added an extra 220MW target for next two years to extend solar applications to types including community, transportation, as well as areas like waters, landfills, salt farm, and abandoned cultivation lands.