More than 500 million kilowatt-hours (kWh) are likely to be sold through a Taiwan Renewable Energy Certification Center program through the end of this year, driven by intense corporate demand for green energy, the Bureau of Standards, Metrology and Inspections (BSMI) said yesterday.
The Ministry of Economic Affairs’ bureau administers the Taiwan Renewable Energy Certificate (T-REC) program.
Each certificate represents 1,000kWh of electricity from renewable sources.
The first deals were announced in May, with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) being the biggest buyer, the bureau said in a news release.
Speaking to the Taipei Times by telephone, BSMI division director Huang Chih-wen (黃志文) said that pent-up corporate demand for green energy explains the program’s quick adoption.
“A lot of the deals were in the works long before we opened the T-REC platform,” Huang said. “As soon as they saw that the first batch of transactions went smoothly, everybody jumped in.”
While the first batch involved mostly solar power, most of the upcoming deals will be from onshore wind projects, Huang said.
“We anticipate reaching 500 million kilowatt hours by the end of the year,” Huang said, adding that the exact schedule is uncertain because parties take their time before signing deals, which run for up to 20 years.
TSMC in May bought 38,259 certificates of the 38,318 available, the center’s Web site showed.
TSMC in July signed the Climate Group’s global RE100 pledge, promising to be “committed to 100 percent renewable electricity” by 2050.
Also in July, the firm inked the world’s largest corporate power purchase agreement with Danish energy giant Orsted A/S, buying all of the energy generated from Orsted’s 920 megawatt wind farm off Changhua County for its 20 year lifespan.
The bureau’s role includes working with Taiwan Power Co (Taipower, 台電) to track green electricity generators connected to the Taipower grid and electricity from the grid that goes to a green energy buyer.
Taipower charges NT$0.058 per kilowatt hour to “wheel” energy from renewable sources through its grid from supplier to producer.
An amendment last year to the Renewable Energy Development Act (再生能源發展條例) provided the legislative structure for T-REC, Huang said.
“The independent power producers are protected,” Huang said. “They can leave Taipower to sell their electricity to corporate offtakers at a higher price, but they have the option to return to Taipower at any time at the same rate that they were getting before they left.”
RESTRUCTURING: Taichung and Taoyuan profited most from local firms moving back high-end manufacturing amid the US-China decoupling of trade ties, the ministry said The government’s “Invest in Taiwan” initiative might this year see NT$627.1 billion (US$21.7 billion) of investment pledges realized, with several firms raising stakes and two dropouts due to customer losses, Minister of Economic Affairs (MOEA) Wang Mei-hua (王美花) said yesterday. Wang made the statement at the monthly meeting of the Third Wednesday Club, a local trade group featuring the top 100 firms of each business sector. Since early last year, the government has launched three programs intended to help local companies grapple with US-China trade rows and the COVID-19 pandemic, mainly through moving production lines back to Taiwan. Thus far, the ministry
JOBS AT RISK? Most Cathay Dragon routes are to be operated by Cathay Pacific or a subsidiary, but it was unclear how Taiwanese workers would be affected Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd (國泰航空) yesterday said it is planning new flight services for Taiwan as it announced a corporate restructuring that included the shutdown of its regional subsidiary, Cathay Dragon (國泰港龍), and could lead to job cuts in Taiwan. Cathay Pacific said the shutdown means that the one round-trip service between Taichung and Hong Kong per day and seven round-trip services between Kaohsiung and Hong Kong operated by Cathay Dragon prior to the COVID-19 pandemic would be terminated. “The parent company is planning a new schedule between Taiwan and Hong Kong,” Cathay Pacific assistant manager for corporate communications Moses Hou (侯恩錫)
OVERHEATED MARKET?: The gauge would be designed to provide more reliable information than private-sector data, and help improve policymaking, the council said The National Development Council (NDC) is considering creating a business climate index on Taiwan’s property market, allowing policymakers to better monitor market movements and intervene if necessary, NDC Minister Kung Ming-hsin (龔明鑫) said yesterday. Kung made the remarks at a meeting of the legislature’s Economic Committee where lawmakers from across party lines voiced concerns about housing price hikes driven by capital repatriation. Kung said that the council is assessing the possibility of creating an index designed to provide more accountable and transparent information than data provided by private-sector market analysts, and could help improve policymaking. The council would compile a report on
STOCK MARKETS TAIEX closes slightly higher The TAIEX closed slightly higher yesterday as market sentiment remained cautious over the Nov. 3 US presidential election. Contract chipmaker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) was again the anchor stabilizing the broader market, preventing the main board from falling into negative territory at the end of the session, dealers said. The TAIEX closed up 14.88 points, or 0.12 percent, at 12,877.25, on turnover of NT$167.982 billion (US$5.81 billion). TSMC, the most heavily weighted stock on the local market, rose 0.44 percent after fluctuating between NT$451 and NT$456. The semiconductor subindex and the bellwether electronics sector
RSS