The expansion plan of Baoshan land planning in Hsinchu Science and Technology Park has been passed by the Environment Protection Administration (EPA) at the Environmental Evaluation Conference on July 10. According to the domestic media reports, TSMC, a wafer foundry, will partner up with the Pingtung County Government to develop large-scale solar power plants, in order to achieve 20% of adoption rate of renewable energy. The power generation is estimated to reach 1.3 billion kWh.
The development of HSP Baoshan land has attracted much attention. TSMC plans to invest its R&D and human resources in the said area for the next 20 years. The R&D of 3 nanometer, even 2 nanometers, will be located at Baoshan Base. According to the media, TSMC has indicated that the future R&D facilities are for the development of manufacturing process and advanced product mass production. As soon as the environment impact assessment (EIA) is approved, the land acquisition is expected to be finalized and the construction will be started in 2019, aiming to finish by the end of 2020.
TSMC has also promised 20% of adoption rate of green energy in the previous EIA of the factories of 5 nm and 3 nm as well as the Baoshan R&D center. To honor its commitment, it is estimated that 1.5 billion kWh of renewable energy needs to be generated every year. TSMC, in partnership with the Pingtung County Government, intends to build a utility-scale solar power station with nominal power of 1.5 billion kWh. The subsequent PV cooperation with the Pingtung County Government involves the evaluation of the plant site as well as submission of the EIA document to EPA for review.
Moreover, the HSP Bureau stated that the resident businesses can get 20% of renewable energy every year. The Ministry of Economic Affairs has done a stock-taking of the green energy supply, of which the supply is greater than the demand. The ministry also added that the current supply of renewable energy is about 2.5 billion kWh, which can be up to 5 billion kWh in 2020. Judging from the current demand of the domestic businesses, the annual demand should be less than 3 billion kWh.
According to the Renewable Energy Development Act, which has passed the third reading in last April, the large energy consumers have to establish a certain capacity of renewable energy equipment, energy storage equipment, or purchase renewable energy certificates. Otherwise, they would need to pay a deposit to promote green energy development.
Each company will be able to choose the suitable option according to their level of electricity consumption. If the businesses are motivated to adopt renewable energy, more multinational enterprises would be more willing to invest in Taiwan. More and more companies from overseas are hopping on the bandwagon of zero carbon. 186 companies of different sizes have joined the RE100 alliance, which, consequently, can attract more green supply chain partners and further enhance the competitiveness of Taiwanese companies.
According to the TSMC Corporate Social Responsibility Report in 2018, the company has purchased about 880 million kWh of renewable energy power worldwide. It has also signed a long-term purchase of 90MW capacity with the Taiwan plant. Furthermore, TSMC has installed 1,114 KW of solar energy and generated a power of 3.02 million kWh. The expansion of 2,000 KW of solar energy will be continued.