Taiwan's Bureau of Energy has invited the Australian Solar Council and representatives from large-size engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) firms to join an investment conference in Taipei from March 19-21, 2013. The Taiwan government hopes the conference will stimulate investment projects between the two countries to develop solar power plants. It also plans to help Taiwan-based firms enter the Australia market.
The Bureau of Energy hopes the conference will help Taiwan-based firms understand the solar policies and the solar power plant business in Australia.
According to statistics, the Australia solar market is currently ranked seventh in the world by solar PV system installations. In 2011, accumulated solar installations there reached 837MW and the figure is expected to exceed 1GW in 2012. Residential systems account for 75% while commercial and large-size power plants account for about 10% each. Due to strong policy to reduce carbon emissions, more large-size solar power plants are likely to appear in Australia in the next few years.
The Bureau of Energy stated that Australia has rich sunshine resources and the Australian government has been eager to promote the use of renewable energy through projects and feed-in-tariffs (FITs). Australia passed the Clean Energy Bill 2011 on November 8, 2011 and began implementing the carbon tax scheme for the top 500 firms. Under the scheme, the firms need to purchase carbon permits at the rate of AUD23/ton (USD24/ton). The carbon trade scheme will begin in July 2015.
According to Taiwan government officials, the Bureau of Energy hopes to help domestic solar firms expand share in the international market and achieve the target of solar exports accounting for 10% of total exports from Taiwan.
