The Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA) plans to allocate a portion of all green power generated in Taiwan to a retail market for small and medium-sized enterprises, as the country pushes for net-zero carbon emissions by 2050.
Speaking at the Taiwan Renewable Procurement Summit, Deputy Minister of Economic Affairs Tseng Wen-sheng (曾文生) yesterday said the ministry would require producers of solar energy and offshore wind power to reserve a certain amount of their energy production for use by the retail market, which would be sold to small and medium-sized businesses.
Tseng made the remarks at a time when many companies coveting renewable energy sources have complained that contract chipmaker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) holds a virtual monopoly on the procurement of all locally produced green energy.
Photo: CNA
To promote the country’s renewable energy development, the Bureau of Standard, Metrology, and Inspection (BSMI) established the National Renewable Energy Certification Center in 2017 for green power transactions.
Since issuing the first certificate in May 2017, the center has issued 1.26 million certificates — representing 1.26 billion kilowatt hours of electricity — to green power producers in Taiwan, enabling them to trade their power on a green energy transaction mechanism inaugurated in 2020, or to retain the electricity for their own use.
Of the 1.06 million certificates issued by the middle of February, about 910,000 certificates had been traded on the transaction platform, with TSMC purchasing almost 900,000 certificates, the BSMI said.
Tseng said that the COVID-19 pandemic had raised demand for renewable energy among enterprises in Taiwan.
Demand has been driven by the COP26 climate summit and RE100, a global corporate renewable energy initiative for connecting hundreds of large businesses committed to 100 percent renewable electricity.
An increasing number of companies in Taiwan have also been pressured by their clients to commit themselves to using green energy, Tseng said.
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