Renewable Energies in Taiwan

Renewable energies are sustainable and clean energies, not only may overcome the gradual depletion of traditional fossil energies that have impacts on the environment but also can solve the issues of energy sustainability, economic development, and environmental protection. A medium subtropical island surrounded by the Pacific Ocean, Taiwan has enormous potential to develop various renewables, such as solar, biomass, wind, geothermal, hydro. According to the estimation, the total renewable energy (RE) reserve is about 194GW, which equals to 4 times of national installed power capacity in 2015, e.g., 48.7GW, so Taiwan has abundant renewable energy resources indeed. Taiwan imports 97% of total energy supply from foreign countries, so the energy security constitutes the most important topic for the national energy policy. In 2009, the central government promulgated the Renewable Energy Development Bill as the milestone policy to develop RE. In mid-2016, the new government (DPP) came to power claiming the "Nuclear-free Homeland" as its main energy policy, in short, by 2025, the RE power generation installed capacity will account 20% for the all power generation capacity in the country.