Taiwan’s Geothermal and Ocean Energy Market

Taiwan’s energy transition to ocean and geothermal energy provides growing opportunities for U.S energy players and investors. Taiwan intends to expand the contribution from ocean energy and geothermal as a part of their efforts to increase renewables. Concurrently they plan to significantly reduce coal use, increase LNG, and eliminate nuclear.  Taiwan Authorities expect Independent Power Producers (IPP) to lead ocean and geothermal projects and add approximately 8 to 14GW¹ of new energy to the grid by 2050 with a market potential of $48 billion (industry estimate).  Notably, Taiwan industry lacks experience, and will need foreign expertise and equipment to supply both geothermal and ocean power generation equipment.

Taiwan has the potential to generate 33.6GW of geothermal energy according to the Central Geological Survey, MOEA. The progress has been very limited, however, despite Taiwan authorities having studied geothermal energy for years.  Currently one facility with U.S. technology is operating in Taiwan, with a capacity of 4.2MW and at a cost of $25.5 million².

 
Taiwan authorities will offer financial and regulatory assistance to the developers of geothermal energy:
•    Provide an exemption of the requirement for environmental impact assessments for projects < 10MW³.
•    Provide a preferential tariff for the year 2022; with a rate 13% higher than offshore wind energy.

IPPs will be able to select fixed or tiered rates over time:

Source: Bureau of Energy, MOEA

Regarding ocean energy, these market opportunities exist⁴: 
•    Wave energy: 2.4GW
•    Ocean thermal energy conversion: 2.8GW, and
•    Ocean current energy: 4.2GW

Taiwan authorities will provide a preferential tariff of $0.244/kWh for ocean energy to the developers of ocean energy according to the Bureau of Energy, MOEA.

As geothermal and ocean energy are relatively new in Taiwan, there is no local supply chain for critical equipment.  U.S companies and investors with expertise, experience, and technologies in this field will be well-positioned to be successful.

For additional information contact the U.S. Commercial Service in Taiwan, Kenneth.Chen@trade.gov.
 

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¹ Please see Taiwan’s Pathway to Net-Zero Emission in 2050 published by the National Development Council on March 30, 2022.  
² “The First Geothermal Power License in the Past 30 Years.”, United Daily, November 16, 2021.
³ Please see Article 29.1.9,    Standards for Determining Specific Items and Scope of Environmental Impact Assessments for Development Activities.
⁴ Please see the Evaluation System and Testing Program for Ocean Energy Power Generation 2008-2011, published by Industrial Technology Research Institute.