Price of renewable energy should be left to market: Economic official

Taipei, July 4 (CNA) There is sufficient green electricity for enterprises that need it in Taiwan, but the price needs to be decided by the market, said Vice Economic Minister Lien Ching-chang (連錦漳) on Thursday.

Lien made the remarks at a renewable procurement forum in Taipei, in response to concerns that the country has insufficient green power for companies required by their customers to be greener.

"A price that is lower than the cost of generating green power is not reasonable," he said, stressing that "there is no shortage of renewable power as long as the price is reasonable."

Another difficulty, Lien said, is people's attitude to power generating facilities.

While Taiwan welcomes more data and research centers being built, "people wish away the construction of corresponding green electricity generating facilities in their neighborhood," he said, commenting on the recent arguments over tech companies' plans to build data centers and research and development centers in Taiwan.

Lien called on the localities soliciting the tech investments to help facilitate the nearby construction of green power facilities.

Meanwhile, it is expected that four years from now the amount of green electricity traded will reach 10,000 gigawatt hours a year, said Huang Chih-wen (黃志文), director of the National Renewable Energy Certification (T-REC) Center, at the forum.

Huang said the one-year trading volume of green power rose from 250 gigawatt hours in 2020 to 1,700 gigawatt hours in 2023. "And there is a high chance of the volume reaching 10,000 gigawatt hours a year after 2028."

As of June 2024, 78 percent of the 342 buyers were big enterprises, Huang noted.

The ministry and the center will assist more small and medium enterprises (SMEs) acquire green electricity, he stressed.

Rather than entering corporate power purchase agreements (CPPA) which have higher thresholds in terms of credit rating and financing power, SMEs will have different points of access, provided by the ministry, to purchase green electricity.

The programs include matchmaking services launched in 2022 for public or state-owned enterprises to lease land for the construction of solar power facilities and reserve 30 percent of the generated power for SMEs, and Taiwan Power Co. selling smaller amounts of green electricity through a bidding platform initiated last year.

The most recent initiative being planned is that a government-backed electricity retailing enterprise will be established to procure green power and distribute it to SMEs in need, Huang said.