Taiwan’s Legislative Yuan has passed the revised "Renewable Energy Development Act," mandating installation of 27 GW renewable energy capacity by 2025, for which major power consumers will have to set up green-energy facilities or pay a sum as compensation.

According to the revised law, which cleared the floor on April 12, renewable energy will account for 20% of total power supply by 2025. In order to attain the goal, municipal governments will be authorized to handle projects lower than 2,000 KW in capacity, leaving larger projects in the hands of the Ministry of Economic Affairs. 

The revised law also offers incentives for common citizens to install green-energy facilities and calls for increase of inventory of renewable-energy resources, assistance for setup of certification bodies, increase of subsidies for R&D on green power and energy storage, encouragement for general public to take part in investments in public and private power plants, and setup of green power and energy storage facilities in aboriginal communities.

According to the revised law, renewable facilities for self use can be connected to grids via independent or common feed lines, which is in line with the trend of free trade for renewable energy, as embodied in the revised Electricity Act.

Under the revised law, major power consumers will have to set up renewable energy facilities with capacities higher than a certain level and energy storage equipment, purchase renewable-energy certificates, or pay a sum for supporting green-energy development. While major power consumers have yet to be defined, at present power consumers exceeding 800 KW are required by many municipal governments to utilize a certain percentage of green power in their power consumption. If the criterion is adopted, over 5,000 enterprises will be subject to the requirement of the revised law.

The revised law still upholds the DPP government's "nuclear-free homeland" vision, retaining the projected power-supply structure of 30% for fuel coal, 50% for natural gas, and 20% for renewable energy. The 2025 deadline for the realization of the vision, however, has been removed, in response to the passage of the referendums upholding nuclear power and opposing coal-fueled thermal power for the sake of anti-air pollution.

(Collaborative media: TechNews, first photo courtesy of pixabay)