CPC, Taipower to jointly explore geothermal power across Taiwan

Taipei, Nov. 14 (CNA) Taiwan Power Company (Taipower) and CPC Corp., Taiwan have formed about 20 teams to conduct geothermal exploration around Taiwan next year, with an aim of generating 1 gigawatts (GW) of geothermal energy by 2028, Vice Minister of Economic Affairs Lien Ching-chang (連錦漳) said on Thursday.

Speaking at a renewable energy summit, Lien said the government will continue to put the utmost effort into promoting sustainable energy, such as wind, geothermal, solar and hydro power.

Also read: Taiwan begins drilling of first deep geothermal well

According to Lien, the government has set an objective of producing sustainable energy to account for 60-70 percent of the country's total power generation in 2050, when the global energy sector is bound to reach net-zero emissions by deploying a wide portfolio of clean energy technologies.

To serve that end, some 20 CPC-Taipower teams are poised to kick off a geothermal exploration project across Taiwan in 2025.

The exploration task followed the drilling of Taiwan's first deep geothermal well in Yilan County's Yuanshan Township in October, with the work expected to be completed in June next year.

The country's shallow geothermal energy potential is about 1 GW and its deep geothermal energy potential has an estimated high of 40 GW, with the potential to develop 10 GW of geothermal energy, said Economic Affairs Minister Kuo Jyh-huei (郭智輝) at a ceremony marking the start of the drilling,

According to Lien, Taiwan ranked the world's seventh in terms of offshore wind power installation capacity last year, with a generation capacity surpassing 2 GW, evidenced in that as of August this year, Taiwan had erected 364 wind power plants, with a generation capacity hitting 2.7 GW.

Renewable energy accounted for only 10.5 percent of total electricity generation in the first nine months of 2024 in Taiwan, up from 9.1 percent during the same period in 2023, but still far below the government's 20 percent target for 2025.