Big solar-plus-storage comes to Taiwan

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Taiwanese solar cell and module maker United Renewable Energy Corp (URE) has announced it has won a tender held by state-owned utility Taiwan Power Company for the deployment of a 15 MW/15 MWh storage facility which, when built, will become Taiwan's largest storage project for a single site.

The project will be implemented in partnership with Taiwan-based power electronics specialist Shihlin Electric and Engineering Corporation, French battery manufacturer Saft, and Underwriters Laboratories, a U.S., nonprofit, standards development organization.

The storage system will be coupled to an operational 150 MW solar plant owned by Taiwan Power Company that was energized in early April and is located at a former salt mine in the south of the country. The solar park is the largest PV facility ever built in the island to date.

The battery will be provided by Saft and will help stabilize the local grid and provide ancillary services.

Developers of huge solar parks in Taiwan must continue to deal with resistance from the government, other industrial players, and the farming sector. As in neighboring South Korea, land shortages are a big issue for solar deployment in Taiwan, as roughly two-thirds of the country is mountainous.

The Taiwanese government aims to install 20 GW of solar by 2025, with 3 GW of rooftop PV and 17 GW of ground-mounted capacity. According to the latest statistics from the International Renewable Energy Agency, the island had around 5.8 GW of installed PV capacity at the end of 2020.

*The article was amended on April 6 to specify that Saft is a France-based company, and not Switzerland-based, as we previously reported.

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