With Taiwan phasing out the nuclear power by 2025, renewable sources are likely to gain traction to fill the power generation gap by swiftly increasing the development of renewable energy sources, finds GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company.

The total renewable installed capacity amounted to 9.31 GW in 2021, having increased from 1.38 GW in 2010, at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 19.0%. The government has been actively encouraging the use of renewable sources for energy generation to reduce the dependence on fossil fuels. However, renewable capacity is expected to increase from 9.3 GW in 2021 to 63.7 GW in 2035 at a CAGR of 14.7%.

GlobalData’s report, ‘Taiwan Power Market Size, Trends, Regulations, Competitive Landscape and Forecast, 2022-2035’, reveals that uranium deposits are absent in Taiwan making it dependent on imports for running a major portion of its power generation portfolio besides low fossil fuel reserves. The country was prompted to rethink its nuclear power program in 2011 in the wake of the Fukushima disaster in Japan.

This led to the government placing one of its upcoming nuclear reactors on standby and postponing the construction of the other indefinitely. Existing reactors are set to be decommissioned after their useful life is over. Taiwan intends to fill the gap created by the retirement of its nuclear power plants with renewable power capacity.

Attaurrahman Ojindaram Saibasan, Power Analyst at GlobalData, says: “Taiwan intends to create a ‘nuclear-free homeland’ by 2025. The state-run utility is currently operating only two nuclear power plants for power generation, and the Ministry of Economic Affairs rejected life extensions of the operating nuclear power plants, the last of which will reach the end of its licensure in May 2025.

“The government has been actively encouraging the use of renewable sources for energy generation to reduce dependence on fossil fuels. To support the development of renewable energy, the government passed the Renewable Energy Development Act in 2009 (further amended in 2019) which set a target of 27 GW of installed capacity coming from renewables by 2025. Solar PV and offshore wind are expected to constitute most of the installed renewable capacity by 2035.”