Cabinet passes ‘green’ energy park plan

‘FIVE PLUS TWO’: The plan calls for the establishment of a 22-hectare park that will house a research center and a testing facility to develop renewable energy sources

By Chen Wei-han / Staff reporter





The Executive Yuan yesterday approved a proposal to build a “green” energy park in the Shalun area (沙崙) in Tainan’s Gueiren District (歸仁) to attract NT$1.2 trillion (US$37.93 billion) in investment in the renewable energy industry.

The 22-hectare park near the Taiwan High Speed Rail’s Tainan Station will comprise a 5-hectare joint research center and a 17-hectare testing facility that will be operated by the Ministry of Science and Technology and the Ministry of Economic Affairs.

The park is to develop renewable energy sources, in particular solar power, biomass and offshore wind power technologies; energy storage technology, including lithium battery, fuel cell and grid energy storage systems; energy conservation technology for electric vehicles and energy-saving motors; and “green” architecture and system integration engineering, said Chen Tzong-chyuan (陳宗權), director-general of the Ministry of Science and Technology’s Department of Foresight and Innovation Policies.

In addition to research bodies under the two ministries, Academia Sinica, National Chiao Tung University and National Cheng Kung University will establish facilities and campuses in the park to boost their research capacity.

“The park has been in the planning for some time and is part of the government’s program to develop the ‘five plus two’ industries. There is a very high degree of consensus [over the project], and hopefully it will yield concrete results in a short time,” Executive Yuan spokesman Hsu Kuo-yung (徐國勇) quoted Premier Lin Chuan (林全) as saying.

The “five plus two” industries include an Asian Silicon Valley, “intelligent” machinery, “green” energy technology, biomedicine and national defense — plus establishing a new agricultural paradigm and a circular economy, which the government has been promoting to boost the nation’s economy.

The park, which is scheduled to be completed in 2019, aims to boost the nation’s wind-power generation capacity to 4.2 gigawatts and solar-power generation capacity to 20 gigawatts by 2025.

The project is expected to create NT$1.2 trillion in private investment and introduce 1,000 researchers to the park, Minister of Science and Technology Yang Hung-duen (楊弘敦) said.

The park will also include commercial and residential areas, and the government is to invest more than NT$50 billion in infrastructure, Tainan Deputy Mayor Wu Chong-rong (吳宗榮) said.

A film studio is to be established at a 200-hectare site at Taiwan Sugar Corp’s (台糖) Shalun Farm, which is separated from the park’s residential area by a large greenway, Wu said.