At the Cabinet's weekly meeting Thursday, Premier Su Tseng-chang received a Ministry of Economic Affairs briefing on short-term objectives for solar power energy production. The government is committed to promoting green energy, and solar power is the most important component of that policy, he said. Having laid a firm foundation over the past two years, the government is now introducing a second iteration of the Two-year Solar PV Promotion Plan (2019-2020), with expected benefits of NT$222 billion (US$7.5 billion) in investment and business opportunities.
The second phase focuses on three main strategies: solar energy adoption at the nation's industrial parks, cooperation among central and local governments, and solar power generation at agricultural, aquacultural and livestock facilities. The plan calls for increasing solar energy's contribution to the nation's generating capacity to 6.5 gigawatts (GW) by 2020.
Citing statistics from the Taiwan Power Co., the premier said that solar power installations at one point on September 2 contributed more than 2 GW or 5.8 percent of the nation's total energy supply, exceeding the individual capacity of either Nuclear Power Plant No. 2 or No. 3.
Also this year on January 23, tech giant Google announced that it would purchase the electricity produced by a 10-megawatt array at a solar plant in Tainan and use the power at its data center in Changhua. The project represents Google's first renewable energy purchase deal in Asia.
As can be seen from these developments, Taiwan's solar power program contributes tangibly to domestic electricity supply, and has earned recognition from the international community for its long-term green energy industry efforts, the premier said.