Taipei, Feb. 23 (CNA) The Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA) announced Friday a project to encourage households in Taiwan to install solar panels on the roofs of their homes.
Under the new measures, local governments will work with private sector firms which will organize households in designated areas and build solar panels for them in a bid to reach a fixed level of power production under the supervision of the ministry.
The MOEA said the project has designated three sizes for solar panel installation: 10-50 MW for several administrative districts in a single city or county, 1-10 MW for a single administrative district in a city or a county, and 0.5-1 MW for a township.
The minimum paid-in capital for operators interested in the power generation projects will be NT$300 million, NT$30 million and NT$10 million, respectively, to ensure programs run smoothly, the ministry added.
Once an operator organizes households under its umbrella and secures regulatory approval, state-owned electricity supplier Taiwan Power Co. (Taipower) will buy electricity from the operator at NT6.4137 (US$0.22) per kilowatts an hour.
After the purchase, the operator will pay 10 percent of the payment to participating households for using their roofs, and 30 percent to the local government.
The MOEA said the money received by local governments will be exclusively used for green energy development.
The solar power generation project will run through August 2019, according to the ministry.
However, there will also be a pilot program with local governments recruited as a model for their counterparts still considering the program, the ministry said.
Under the pilot program, which will run until August 2018, the MOEA will distribute a total of NT$100 million in subsidies for local governments working with the ministry to promote household solar power production.
The MOEA said it will take applications to take part in the pilot program from interested local governments and plans to announce the participants in mid-March, adding that households in areas governed by participating local government are expected to start power production at the end of August.
Currently, Taichung City Government, Changhua County Government, Chayi County Government, Tainan City Government and Pingtung County Government have expressed interest in the pilot program, the MOEA said.
Renewable energy development is part of the Cabinet's "5 plus 2" innovation development program, which seeks to integrate existing industrial strengths with new industries in a bid to make Taiwan more internationally competitive.
(By Huang Ya-chuan and Frances Huang)
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