The Energy Bureau of the Ministry of Economic Affairs officially announced the bulk purchase rates for renewable energy this year (2024) on the 5th. Most renewable energy rates remain the same as last year or have increased slightly, with only the solar photovoltaic rate being reduced. In addition, the Energy Bureau has specially added a minimum rooftop photovoltaic range of less than 10 kilowatts to encourage the development of micro-rooftop photovoltaics.
Compared to last year, this year's renewable energy bulk purchase rates saw a slight decrease for solar photovoltaics alone. Other renewable energy categories remained largely unchanged, with slight increases for geothermal and biomass power generation. The first phase of the solar photovoltaic bulk purchase rate ranged from NT$3.7635 to NT$5.7848 per kilowatt-hour, while the second phase saw a range of NT$3.7236 to NT$5.7055 per kilowatt-hour.
To encourage the installation of solar photovoltaic systems on rooftops of private power plants and micro- and small-sized households, the Energy Agency has further categorized rooftop solar systems under 100 kW into four different ranges: under 10 kW, 10-20 kW, 20-50 kW, and 50-100 kW. Based on the average household rooftop area of approximately 30 ping (approximately 100 square meters), the most suitable installation capacity is 10 kW.
Zheng Taijun, a researcher at the Earth Citizen Foundation, expressed his approval of the newly added micro-rooftop photovoltaic tiers. Although the rates are still not high enough, the clear division of tiers is an incentive to attract more small-scale residential projects, and the bulk purchase subsidies will also be more convincing to builders.
Zheng Taijun called for the mandatory area threshold of the rooftop photovoltaic law to be lowered to 90 ping (equivalent to about 15 kilowatts) in conjunction with the bulk purchase level, and for citizens' energy education to be strengthened at the same time, so as to further popularize rooftop photovoltaics.
In order to encourage the installation of solar photovoltaics on the roofs of citizen power plants and micro, small and medium-sized households, the Energy Agency has further divided rooftop solar photovoltaics with a capacity of less than 100 kilowatts into four levels.
Compared with last year (2023), this year's renewable energy bulk purchase rates for most renewable energy categories remained unchanged, with a slight increase in geothermal and biomass power generation categories.
Source: Environmental Information Centre
