Energy Taiwan & Net-Zero Taiwan 2025 trade show organizers expected to welcome more than 28,000 visitors including more than 600 international buyers to the event, held in Taipei from Oct. 29 to Oct. 31. In a year which has seen extreme weather and AI make headlines, exhibitors still expect solar and energy storage to play a key role in Taiwan’s future – despite some headwinds.
Semiconductor trade group SEMI opened proceedings at a press conference on Oct. 27. The expected AI boom should mean strong demand for Taiwanese chips, but Terry Tsao, global chief marketing officer and president of Taiwan SEMI, warned Taiwan must decarbonize manufacturing to make sure “our high-tech semiconductor industry can continue to sell their product around the world.”
Tsao raised the commitments made by companies signed up to the RE100 initiative as a key driver of decarbonization for industry in Taiwan, and these corporate obligations were mentioned often on the exhibition floor. Shaune Chen, senior manager at Micro Electricity – which offers a range of services for solar plants and renewables investors – told pv magazine that many industries in Taiwan, and especially its semiconductor sector, will need to buy more green energy to ensure compliance. The world’s largest chip manufacturer TSMC is already making moves in this direction.
“TSMC is one of our clients for green energy right now. They are building the newest generation of semiconductor factory in Taiwan or in America. For their supply chain, they need RE100 commitment for 2030 but every new factory is really another huge monster for energy,” said Chen.
This was echoed by a company representative of Apollo Power, who told pv magazine that tech giants such as Apple and Nvidia, among others, have been seeking PPAs in Taiwan to ensure RE100 compliance.
The European Union’s carbon border adjustment mechanism (CBAM) was also highlighted at the opening press conference as a driver of commercial and industrial (C&I) renewables deployment in Taiwan, and the Taiwan government has its own regulations aimed at pushing large C&I offtakers toward renewables.
Large energy consumers in Taiwan with a load greater than 5 MW must source at least 10% of their power from renewables, but there are ways around this. One trade show exhibitor selling combined heat and power (CHP) generators told pv magazine that installing gas-fueled CHPs for self-consumption could keep companies below the 5 MW threshold – although the representative argued hydrogen could replace gas as in the future.
There is more to Taiwan solar than the C&I segment, and module manufacturers at the event said they see opportunities at home and abroad, despite ongoing low module prices in export markets, as well as recent trade policy changes in the United States.
Taiwanese manufacturers continue to serve the domestic market, while also leveraging expertise gained locally for specific use cases in a competitive export environment. Taiwanese solar and cell manufacturer TSEC was showcasing typhoon-resistant modules at the show, and a company representative told pv magazine experience with island installations had helped TSEC secure customers with projects in high corrosion environments such as Okinawa, Japan.
Taiwan is now a TOPCon market, too. Leading manufacturers placed TOPCon modules prominently on the show floor and company representatives told pv magazine that while there were outstanding PERC orders to fill, the manufacturing focus is TOPCon.
Representatives from Taiwanese module makers also said there could be scope to grow US exports, despite the 20% tariff on Taiwanese goods introduced by President Donald Trump. United Renewable Energy (URE) Assistant Vice President, International Business, CP Hsieh told pv magazine pending decisions in Washington DC on foreign entity of concern (FEOC) customs rules could support Taiwan module exports, if solar panels from other Asian nations are negatively affected.
For now, Taiwanese module makers continue to take an international approach to manufacturing. Factories in Taiwan produce modules that can be competitive domestically or in markets with restrictions on products from China. Meanwhile, original equipment manufacturers in other markets, including factories in China, produce modules for Taiwanese module makers that can be sold at a lower price point. These can serve markets where Taiwanese modules can’t compete on cost, although the current low module price globally poses a major challenge.
There should be more domestic opportunities for manufacturers if the government’s ambitions for solar become reality. Taiwan continues to offer a feed-in tariff for consumers with arrays up to 10 kW as the government pursues a target of 20 GW total deployed solar capacity by November 2026, a target initially set from 2025. This ambition doesn’t appear to be shared uniformly across local governments, and one exhibitor told pv magazine the market for solar projects had slowed ahead of local government elections next year. Taiwan’s solar industry faces the same land-use debates relating to agriculture and aesthetics that are common across markets.
Floating solar equipment providers and developers are also facing uncertainty, as the government mulls new guidance for floating projects following Typhoon Danas, which made land fall in July 2025 and damaged more than 130,000 panels. A representative from floating solar manufacturer Sun Rise told pv magazine regulations might go beyond DNV RP 05 84 industry guidelines, and could result in a need to adapt designs. Module manufacturers said they were ready for any changes and can prove their products are not toxic to the environment.
AI usually makes headlines in Taiwan for its influence on the semiconductor industry, but there was no shortage of companies pushing machine learning products for PV. Software that promises to streamline operations and maintenance, AI energy management systems, and even tools with claimed potential to slash legal bills during project acquisitions could all be found on the show floor.
There was also a significant energy storage contingent among the exhibitors at Energy Taiwan 2025. Taiwan may offer a feed-in tariff and a stable grid, but extreme weather conditions have piqued interest in off-grid solutions according to some exhibitors.
A representative Sunshine Electric, a Taiwanese business offering battery energy storage, inverters and energy management systems to the domestic market, told pv magazine that power loss endured by rural consumers during typhoons was driving interest in behind-the-meter storage.
Storage can also play a role in typhoon recovery, according to David Chen, US sales and marketing director, at Cold Electric. The energy storage manufacturer offers LFP utility-scale and C&I storage products that are “fully made in Taiwan,” Chen said, with Taiwan-made cells that operate at a lower temperature. This was crucial during typhoon recovery, Chen argued, because it allowed Cold Electric to deliver energy storage in a charged state to typhoon hit areas enduring power loss.
Transformers were a topic of discussion for those hoping to power AI data centers more cheaply. At the opening press conference, Adam Bacon of Bloom Energy highlighted the impact switching from an AC architecture to DC for data centers could have on equipment cost. Industry leaders such as Nvidia are already pursuing a switch to DC for data centers, which should suit PV due to its DC output, while improving energy efficiency by removing AC/DC transformations. Bacon told pv magazine the pace of the switch to DC is being set by solid-state transformer deployment.
The reporter's flights and accommodation to attend Energy Taiwan & Net Zero Taiwan were paid for by the Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA).
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