Taiwan will add 2.5 gigawatts of solar power generation capacity in 2022, which would be the most installed in a single year if achieved, Economics Minister Wang Mei-hua (王美花) said Monday.
Speaking at a ceremony at which state-owned oil supplier CPC Corp., Taiwan and the European Chamber of Commerce Taiwan unveiled the Net Zero by 2050: Best Practices Report, Wang said the Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA) has pushed an energy transition by promoting renewable energy development.
Implementing the energy transition by aggressively increasing the capacity of renewable energy to cut carbon emissions is the first step on the path toward achieving Taiwan’s net-zero emissions goal by 2050, Wang said.
In terms of solar power generation, Wang said Taiwan is expected to add new solar power capacity of 2.5GW in 2022, which would top the previous annual high of 1.883GW in 2021.
A total of 1.1GW of solar capacity was installed in the first seven months of 2022, according to Bureau of Energy (BOE) figures, leaving 1.4GW to be installed in the final five months of the year.
The government has lagged slightly behind its solar power targets despite the rapid buildup of solar generating power arrays in Taiwan, with total installed capacity of 7.7GW as of the end of 2021 falling short of its previous stated goal of 8.75GW, BOE data showed.
Solar power accounted for 2.7 percent of all electricity produced by Taiwan in 2021 and 3.3 percent of all power produced in the first seven months of 2022, BOE data showed.
Wang also reiterated an MOEA goal to reach a total of 200 offshore wind turbines installed by the end of 2022, with 100 installed this year as of late August to bring the total to 143.
Taiwan is pursuing the development of green energy as part of an energy transition that includes the phasing out of nuclear power by 2025.
The government’s goal has been to have renewables account for 20 percent of all electricity produced by 2025, with the rest coming from fossil fuels, mostly coal and natural gas.
According to the BOE, renewable power accounted for 7.9 percent of Taiwan’s electricity generation in the first seven months of 2022, up from 5.5 percent over the same period last year.
Roughly 60 percent of those gains have come from an increase in hydro power, which fell off dramatically in early 2021 as Taiwan faced a nationwide drought.
Thermal power accounted for 82.6 percent and nuclear power for 8.4 percent of electricity generation during the seven-month period, according to BOE data.
Source: Focus Taiwan News Channel