The Bureau of Energy on Tuesday extended higher feed-in tariffs for solar energy installations until the end of the year to help boost green energy installations amid a labor shortage and a surge in costs of raw materials.
The new rules came as Taiwan Power Co (台電) faces greater challenges to maintain a stable supply of power as high temperatures boost usage, prompting the state-run utility to hike electricity prices for heavy users.
“As surges in installation costs have exceeded expectations and consumer prices have been volatile in the second half of this year, the government would share the rising cost risk for raw materials with green energy developers to encourage green energy installations,” the bureau said in a statement.
Photo: Fang Chih-hsien, Taipei Times
The bureau at the beginning of this year reduced the feed-in tariffs for rooftop solar energy developers to NT$5.8952 per kilowatt-hour (kWh) for the first six months. They were to drop to NT$5.7848 in the second half.
However, with yesterday’s announcement, the first-half tariffs are to remain for the rest of the year.
Tariffs for rooftop solar panel installations are higher than the incentives for ground-mount and floating solar farms.
The bureau on Tuesday also offered extra incentive payments for developers of large-scale solar panel installation projects, if they can complete the work ahead of schedule.
Solar energy developers would receive NT$0.0538 per kWh if they complete construction 21 months earlier than scheduled, the statement said.
The payment would be NT$0.1075 per kWh if a project is completed 18 months ahead of schedule, it said.
The new rules apply to solar energy developers who began solar installation projects last year with installed capacity of at least 10 megawatts and projects initiated this year with installed capacity of 5 to 10 megawatts, it said.
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