Taiwan has officially announced the feed-in tariffs (FiT) schemes for renewable energy projects for 2017. Solar PV projects that fulfill certain criteria in 2017 will enjoy original FiT rates plus a 6% or 15% bonus.
Taiwan’s Bureau of Energy, Ministry of Economic Affairs, announced the final decision for 2017’s renewable energy FiT schemes on October 4. FiT rates for onshore large-scale wind projects, hydropower and biomass will be increased from 2016, while FiT rates for solar PV projects, onshore small-scale wind projects, offshore wind projects and geothermal projects will be reduced by different ratios due to costs decline and changes in market demand.
The key decisions of FiT scheme for PV projects for 2017 are as following:
- PV projects for 2017 will not be awarded through project bids.
- The final rates will be 1.29% up from previous announcement.
- PV projects using high-efficiency PV modules will be favored with a 6% FiT bonus.
- PV projects built in northern Taiwan will enjoy a 15% FiT bonus.
- PV projects built on islands will enjoy a 15% FiT bonus.
- FiT rate designed for floating PV projects included.
An official from Bureau of Energy explained that the Bureau expects to have at least 700MW of PV projects installed in 2017 in order to be on schedule of Taiwan’s 2025 target. To meet the 700MW goal, the Bureau will terminate the solar bid mechanism.
Taiwanese officials: 20GW of PV installation by 2025
Dr. Chuan-Neng Lin, Director General of Bureau of Energy, reemphasized on a conference concerning renewable energy in Taiwan that the central government aims to increase renewable energies to 20% in the energy mix by 2025.
Regarding PV installations, Lin stated that the government’s target is 20GW by 2025. The target also implies business value of up to NT$1.74 trillion.
If the Taiwan government carried out the PV installation target on schedule, Taiwan’s annual PV demand will increase to exceed 2GW by around 2020. By that time and under this scenario, Taiwan will become one of the top 10 solar market in the world, according to an analyst at EnergyTrend.
