In 2013, the government launched a project to encourage the installation of rooftop solar panels to generate power for personal use. Any excess electricity would be sold to Taiwan Power Co (Taipower).
However, the project failed to gain widespread support from the public, because government agencies exerted little effort to publicize it. It also offered insufficient subsidies and incentives and discouraged the development of an active industry. People were dissuaded from making some extra money by installing rooftop photovoltaic (PV) systems.
To encourage participation, the Ministry of Economic Affairs last week announced a new program that includes no subsidies and no cost contribution from building owners, requiring installers to foot the entire bill.
Owners of residential, commercial and office buildings can rent their rooftops to PV system developers, which will install solar panels and sell the electricity to Taipower at government-specified feed-in tariffs for 20 years.
The program guarantees the wholesale purchase of generated electricity and provides participants with a rebate equivalent to 10 percent of the tariffs, an estimated NT$674 (US$22.39) per month on average.
Local governments helping to broker the deployment of PV systems also receive 3 percent of the feed-in tariffs.
The ministry next month plans to select three “demonstration cities” in the hopes that the program could accelerate the government’s goal of establishing 3 gigawatts of rooftop solar power capacity by 2020, five years earlier than its original goal.
The ministry estimates that the program could generate 2.5 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity per year, supplying about 680,000 households, while reducing carbon dioxide emissions by 1.3 million tonnes. It also estimates that it would create investments of up to NT$120 billion and 12,000 jobs over the next three years.
The policy might be well-intentioned, but more complementary measures are required to increase the effectiveness of rooftop installations without wasting public funds or benefiting just a few PV system developers.
Although swift declines in the cost of rooftop solar panels have increased the affordability of such systems, building regulations, weather conditions, household electricity usage patterns and a lack of suitable roof space continue to limit access.
Moreover, metering arrangements in apartment buildings, especially in northern Taiwan, could complicate installations.
Since the Democratic Progressive Party government took office in May last year, it has been pushing for a larger ratio of energy generated by renewable sources in the nation’s power grid, to 20 percent over the next eight years from 5 percent today.
However, the development of solar, wind and other sources is not expected to fill the gap left by a declining nuclear power capacity in the short term, while burning more fossil fuels only leads to more air pollution that causes respiratory and cardiovascular diseases, lung cancer and other health issues.
Despite the renewed effort to promote rooftop PV systems, the nation must take energy conservation to heart, because it is the easiest and fastest solution to solve the nation’s power supply issue.
Apart from educating the public about the benefits of conservation, the government should provide incentives for people to increase energy efficiency and reduce their carbon footprint.
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