Taipei, Nov. 16 (CNA) Tech and energy companies on Thursday talked about how renewable energy can be better generated and used in Taiwan, calling for policy measures to quickly adapt to the changing environment and resolve existing problems.
At a "new energy" forum held on the third day of the four-day Global Corporate Sustainability Forum on Thursday, Hon Hai Precision Industry Co. and Taiwan Cement Corporation (TCC) subsidiary NHOA (New Horizons Ahead) TCC energy storage technology corporation discussed how batteries and battery energy storage systems can help stabilize the country's electricity grid, as long as regulations are relaxed, as more renewable energy is generated and charging stations installed.
Offshore wind power company Orsted Taiwan raised the issue of how policies should take the urgent need for green electricity into consideration.
Troy Wu (吳易座), assistant vice president of Hon Hai Precision Industry Co, said investing in batteries is a natural extension when the company is deeply involved in the electric car industry.
Currently, batteries account for around 35 percent of the cost of an electric vehicle and are expected to still take up around 20 percent in 2030, Wu said, adding that they are also needed in two other industries targeted by Hon Hai -- digital health care and robots.
The global battery market is expected to grow at a compounded annual growth rate of 21.16 percent from 2021 to 2030 to reach about US$184 billion by 2030, according to Wu.
"We believe that the battery industry can be the next semiconductor industry," Wu said. "They both need highly pure materials, require highly automatized manufacturing and testing facilities, and depend heavily on industrial ecosystems."
Batteries also play an important role in energy storage systems by helping to maintain the stability of the electricity grid, both Wu and TCC Energy Storage Technology Corporation Vice President Eric Huang (黃義協) agreed.
If the technology and regulations exist for EVs to feed power back into the grid, that could also be part of the power grid backup, stabilizing the fluctuations engendered by renewable energy, which is potentially damaging to the grid, according to Wu.
Battery energy storage systems function similarly, according to Huang, pointing out that TCC has an energy storage system (ESS) at each of its EV charging stations in Taiwan, totaling eight according to the company's website.
"It took 30 months for us to get a permit to have ESS feed power back into the grid," Huang said, calling on the energy administration to relax regulations so energy storage systems can to be "used to their extreme" for more extensive applications as their costs are relatively prohibitive.
Grid overload and lack of power transmission lines, which cannot be easily increased, could also be a problem in the future when the number of charging stations increases and this is also where ESS could become critical in stabilizing the power supply, Huang added.
While energy storage can be key to the stability of the grid, net-zero cannot be achieved if power sources remain grey.
Noting that the company has installed more than 100 of Taiwan's current 270 wind turbines, Orsted Taiwan Chairperson Christy Wang (汪欣潔) warned that the inflexibility of the existing regulations is conflicting with the country's aim to accelerate the percentage accounted for by renewable energy in the energy mix and reach net zero by 2050.
The best approach is to have regional cooperation in the supply chain for the wind power industry, rather than insisting on heavy localization, which has also been undertaken but it takes time for new techniques to be learned and the industry to mature, she stressed.
