The Ministry of the Interior has released a new draft of its rooftop solar panel mandate, exempting certain sites such as religious buildings from a requirement to install photovoltaic devices on all new structures and renovations of more than 1,000m2.
The draft exempts religious and funeral buildings, those that house hazardous materials, those that receive insufficient sunlight and other cases with “special circumstances.”
The legislature in 2023 passed amendments to the Renewable Energy Development Act (再生能源發展條例) requiring that all new construction, renovations or expansions that meet certain conditions be required to install rooftop solar panels.
Photo courtesy of the Tainan Bureau of Civil Affairs
It required the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Ministry of the Interior to stipulate criteria for the requirement.
The new draft states that all new buildings or renovations with an area of 1,000m2 or larger must install a 1 kilowatt per 20m2 solar panel system. Panels may be installed on the rooftop, awnings or on the ground to meet the requirement.
While previous drafts stipulated the “rooftop area,” the new draft instead specifies “building area,” a National Land Management Agency official said yesterday.
That means the area requirement would effectively be based on the area of the first floor, which is typically larger than the rooftop, the official said.
Religious and funeral buildings are exempt, as they have specific cultural or architectural value, as would buildings used for manufacturing, packaging, sale or storage of hazardous materials where installing solar panels could cause public safety concerns.
Buildings that cannot install solar panels due to special circumstances and structures that do not receive sufficient sunlight to meet the power generation standard would also be exempt if they provide supporting documentation such as a valid power-generation assessment.
The annual power generation standard is 543 kilowatt-hours (kWh) for Hsinchu City, Keelung, Taipei, New Taipei City, Taoyuan, and Hsinchu, Hualien, Miaoli and Yilan counties; 579kWh for Taitung County; and 625kWh for all other municipalities.
The standards are based on sunlight conditions in different regions and the effectiveness of solar panels, the official said.
If solar panels are not installed where required, construction and occupancy permits would not be issued, they added.
The Ministry of the Interior would complete a final revision of the mandate based on public feedback over the next 60 days. The Executive Yuan would then determine the implementation date.
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