Project to help small firms access renewable energy

• By Lisa Wang / Staff reporter

The Ministry of Economic Affairs yesterday launched a green energy leasing project to help small businesses and commercial building owners access renewable energy more easily.

Cathay Life Insurance Co (國泰人壽) and Shin Kong Life Insurance Co (新光人壽), two of the nation’s largest office landlords, support the government’s green energy initiatives and are signing agreements with private energy suppliers to buy green energy or renewable energy certificates (RECs), the ministry said.

The insurers plan to lease the renewable energy they procure to companies renting their office buildings in Taipei’s downtown areas.

Photo: Huang Pei-chun, Taipei Times

Private energy suppliers are to start supplying renewable power next quarter at the earliest, the ministry said in a statement yesterday.

Logistics warehouses, office buildings and community buildings and small and medium-sized businesses are encouraged to adopt renewable energy, or RECs, through the project, the ministry said.

The project is the latest step by the ministry to boost the trading of green energy, following a pilot project launched in the fourth quarter of 2020 that allows REC holders to lease green power.

L’Oreal Taiwan, Yuanta Commercial Bank (元大銀行) and Yuanta Securities Co (元大證券) have started using green energy through the pilot project, the ministry said.

The ministry issued about 1.4 million RECs from May 2017 to the end of February.

The ministry denied media reports about insufficient supply of renewable energy in Taiwan.

The nation has accumulated 10 terawatt-hours of solar power through solar panel installations, it said.

The figure does not include wind power and other forms of renewable energy, the ministry said.

More than 40 companies have secured green energy deals, it said.