As environmental consciousness grows, demand for renewable energy saw a rapid surge. Taiwan’s Bureau of Standard, Metrology, and Inspection (BSMI) announced on Friday that, over the past six years, it has issued a total of 1.06 million renewable energy certificates, with most of them acquired by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC), the world's largest semiconductor manufacturer.
In 2017, the BSMI established the National Renewable Energy Certification Center (T-REC) in an attempt to boost the country's renewable energy development. Since issuing its first certificate in May 2017, the center has to date issued 1.06 million certificates to power producers, allowing them to trade their power on a green energy transaction mechanism, which was launched in 2020, or keep the electricity for self-use.
One renewable energy certificate represents 1,000 kWh of renewable electricity generated, according to BSMI, the 1.06 million certificates issued by T-REC is thus an equivalent of 1.06 billion kWh of power from renewable sources, resulting in a reduction of 534,000 metric tonnes of carbon emissions.
As of February, roughly 910,000 of the 1.06 million certificates issued by the center have been traded on the transaction platform, with TSMC purchasing nearly 900,000 of them, accounting for 98.7%.
BSMI remarked that the proposed transaction price of renewable energy certificates is NT$1,000 to 2,200 (US$35.2 to 77.5) each. Based on this assumption, TSMC is estimated to have spent NT$885 million to 1.995 billion (US$31.1 million to 70.3 million) on procuring green power certificates.
Local businesses like TSMC, according to the BSMI, are eager to use green power because they have integrated the environmental, social, and governance (ESG) idea into their fundamental business operations.
BSMI went on saying, the transaction platform has encouraged many businesses in a variety of industries, including energy, electronics, financial services, biotech, cosmetics, and law firms, to produce green power for transactions or self-use, increasing the amount of green power used to generate electricity.
In addition to green power wheeling, demand for self-consumption energy is also on the rise. Several commercial buildings have begun to generate green energy with their own rooftop solar systems, according to BSMI.
