PHOTON International The Photovoltaic Magazine

New funding for Taiwanese renewables program unclear

Taiwanese Premier Yu Shyi-kun is expected to make a decision on further funding for a renewable energy program by the end of the year – perhaps as early as October.

	© Hans-Josef Fell
Green house effect: Unless Taiwan's premier calls for extra funding, houses with PV, like this building for seminars on renewable energy – the result of a Green Party initiative – may remain a rarity.

The money would extend a PV and solar thermal subsidy program that was passed by the Taiwanese parliament in 2000 to run through the end of 2004. While the original plan was to install 6.7 MW of PV, that number was reduced to 1 MW, with $250 million TWD ($7.3 million USD) allotted for both technologies when the program started. As of August, about 300 kW of PV had been installed.

But the amount of new funding – if approved – is unclear. An Aug. 19 article in the Taipei Times, reported that the country's parliament, the Executive Yuan, had accepted the recommendations of a committee on making Taiwan a nuclear-free country, and would earmark $3 billion TWD ($87.7 million USD) annually for renewables. Of that, $166 million TWD ($4.8 million USD) would be for PV and solar thermal. However, Wu Chen-Chung, a PV researcher in the Taiwan Ministry of Economic Affairs, says that no details on the amounts have been finalized.

Wu says the money would be used for three programs, including a solar city – yet to be chosen – with large »artistic PV« systems to promote the technology; a 50 percent subsidy for PV systems of any size (20 percent for solar thermal installations); and 100 percent subsidies for systems below 10 kW on schools and public buildings.

In a related development, the push started last year by a renewable energy lobby organization, the Taiwan New Energy Development Association, for a feed-in tariff of $15.50 TWD (44¢ USD) per kWh for PV-generated electricity has apparently been unsuccessful (see PI 7/2002, p. 21). When a proposal was introduced in parliament in Aug. 2002, it only guaranteed a purchase price of $2 TWD (5.8¢ USD) per kWh for all renewable generators. Wu says there have been no moves to increase the level. Parliament will vote on the feed-in tariff sometime in 2004, says Wu.