Environmental activists yesterday said the government was lying about the truth with regard to solar energy, saying that using solar energy actually helps reduce electricity costs rather than raise them.
The criticism came after the Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA) announced last month a controversial new pricing policy for solar power that calculates rates based on the completion date of an installed facility, rather than when the contract was signed.
The ministry defended its decision, saying the public would be subsidizing private solar energy suppliers a total of NT$432 billion (US$14.8 billion) over 20 years if the rates were calculated from the date when the contract was signed, which would in turn raise electricity costs.
Activists said the new pricing policy violated the law and would kill the development of renewable energy.
Citing 2009 statistics from Taiwan Power, Jay Fang (方儉), chairman of Green Consumer’s Foundation, told a press conference yesterday that the statistics showed that the power plant in New Taipei City’s (新北市) Linkou (林口) spent approximately NT$490 million generating about 2.33 million kilowatts of net power, with the cost of each kilowatt more than NT$210.
The cost of the Taichung Thermal Power Plant, on the other hand, was NT$59.25 per kilowatt, he said.
“The whole sale price for solar energy is NT$13, a little bit higher than prices for other forms of energy,” Fang said. “The electricity costs will only drop even if the government buys the solar energy at a wholesale price of NT$20.”
Fang said solar power is most useful when the Sun is strongest during the day, which is about four to five hours per day. He said that the demand for electricity is also strongest during these hours as well.
“The cost of generating power during these peak hours is also the highest because some of the machines are only used to meet the demand in this short period of time and are put aside when it is not peak hours. These underused facilities only add up to operational costs,” he said.
Fang said that solar energy could meet the demand for electricity during peak hours.
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Tien Chiu-chin (田秋堇) said Taiwan Power spent NT$214.3 billion a year purchasing fuel to generate power and the cost for this fuel would get more expensive with the rising global demand for energy.
“We have to import 99.7 percent of our energy from overseas, which has threatened national security,” Tien said. “Developing solar or wind power is our only hope to produce energy and sustain ourselves.”
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