Over 130 countries have pledged their net-zero emission targets and timelines. These nations account for 92% of the world’s GDP, 85% of the global population, and 88% of the world’s carbon emissions. While net-zero emission is an extremely challenging goal to achieve, the process also generates significant carbon reduction business opportunities.
The vast scope of net-zero emission issues encompasses the industrial industry, transportation, agriculture, and energy sectors, among which electricity production in the energy sector is the most important. Therefore, when countries are formulating their net-zero emission strategies, they also consider bringing in more renewable energy sources to accelerate their progress.
In addition to the extensively applied wind and solar powers, geothermal energy, a forward-looking energy source, shows much potential since it is unaffected by the seasons, weather, and time.
Taiwan Aims to Improve Geothermal Power Capacity to 20MW by 2025
According to Taiwan’s Pathway to Net-Zero Emissions in 2050 policies released in March 2022, renewable energies such as wind power, solar power, and forward-looking energy sources (including geothermal power generation, biomass energy, and marine energy) are listed as key development directions.
Unaffected by climate and time, geothermal power not only can stably provide uninterrupted power but also is pollution-free, creates minimal carbon emissions during the generation process, and has an operation lifespan of over decades. These features make geothermal power plants ideal base load plants to support sustainable energy supply.
Taiwan has set a target of reaching an installed capacity of 20MW for geothermal power by 2025. Up to now, Taiwan has a total of 8 geothermal power sites (22 projects) that are either connected to the grid, under development, or in the planning stage. There are 9 projects in New Taipei City, 4 projects in Yilan County, 1 project in Hualien County, and 8 projects in Taitung County. TCC Green Energy Corporation, a subsidiary of Taiwan Cement Corp., has attracted the most public attention and announced recently that it will start investing in geothermal development: the company plans to build a large renewable energy hot spring park that incorporates tourism with a geothermal power plant at Dahdah Community in Taitung.
A Geothermal Park That Combines Tourism With Green Energy
Taiwan Cement’s primary business has long been the energy-intensive cement industry. Now with the rise of environmental awareness, the company has begun to aggressively expand its green energy sector. Taiwan Cement is actively working on various green energy projects (wind power, solar power, geothermal, energy storage, and ocean thermal energy conversion) and entering the green energy industry from several aspects through its three core businesses - Resource Recycling, Green Energy, and Low-Carbon Cement.
The geothermal development project in Taitung is part of the 2019 Dahdah Community Revitalization Project in Yanping Township, Taitung, in which TCC Green Energy Corporation participated. TCC Green Energy constructed Taiwan's first geothermal power generation demo park - Vakangan Hot Spring Park in partnership with LDC Hotels & Resorts. The park features hot spring pools, restaurants, and other tourism faculties, and will also have a geothermal power plant in the future to provide constant clean electricity.
Photo 1. Vakangan Hot Spring Park (Image source: Vakangan Hot Spring Park official website)
Recycling Water Resources to Extend The Power Plant’s Lifespan
In 2020, TCC Green Energy Corporation and the Chinese Petroleum Corporation team jointly conducted geological prospecting and geothermal power generation scheme planning for the geothermal power plant in Vakangan Hot Spring Park. The plant will have an installed capacity of 1MW, which can support around 2,500 households.
The geothermal power plant employs the current mainstream dual-circulation geothermal power generation technology to recycle water resources and maintain sustainable operations. Geothermal fluid heats up and vaporizes the refrigerant, a low boiling point working fluid, in the exchanger. The vaporized refrigerant then drives the turbine generator module to generate electricity.
The refrigerant can be recycled and reused after it is cooled down in the condenser. Without coming into contact with air, the geothermal fluid returns straight to the stratum, maintaining reservoir pressure and extending the life of the power plant. This technology works well with lower-temperature geothermal heat sources and can be used in geologically sensitive places.
Currently, the site has completed the drilling of the production well and is expected to be connected to the grid in 2024 and contribute to Taiwan’s green energy developments.
ITRI Provides Support for the Sustainable Operations of the Geothermal Plant
With the Ministry of Economic Affairs’ support, ITRI began to take part in Taiwan’s geothermal resource prospecting and develop crucial power generation technologies very early on to support domestic industries. ITRI is involved in many geothermal development projects in Taiwan and provides services including building domestically-made 50kW dual-circulation geothermal power generator modules, providing geothermal prospecting analyses, evaluating geothermal generation potential, and geothermal production capacity testing.
After the plant is completed, ITRI’s intelligent geothermal plant pre-diagnosis and reservoir operation and maintenance technologies will leverage monitoring and simulation technologies to keep the power generation equipment operating at high efficiency throughout the plant’s lifespan. Furthermore, forward-looking geothermal reservoir production capacity enhancement technology enhances geothermal power storage via various methods, such as hydrofracking and water injection pressurization. These technologies will support the scaling-up of Taiwan Cement’s geothermal power plant in the future as well as improve heat extraction efficiency and reduce power generation costs.
Investing in Recyclable Forward-looking Green Energy Technology
In response to the global trend of decarbonized energy, ITRI is collecting insights concerning carbon reduction actions among businesses as well as technology application needs in the industries. The Institute continuously invests in forward-looking energy-related technology R&D to boost Taiwan’s competitive edge in the geothermal industry and encourages the establishment of geothermal power plants to achieve the goal of net-zero carbon emissions.
Since climate change and the greenhouse effect are becoming more severe, ITRI will keep on developing green energy systems and environmental technology. We aim to explore more recyclable new materials, make design and production processes as well as supply chain management systems smarter, and develop environmental technology that supports coexistence in ecology. ITRI continues to support the upgrading and transformation of the domestic manufacturing industry, promote new sustainable industries, and build a future with green energy technology.
