Taipower looks to build country's largest solar energy facility in Tainan for $235m

The planned facility in Cigu District will have a capacity of 150MW.

State-owned electricity supplier Taiwan Power Co. (Taipower) is planning to build the country’s largest solar energy power facility in Tainan, Southern Taiwan, with a capacity of about 150MW, for an estimated $235m (NT$7.4b), a report by Focus Taiwan revealed.

Hsu Tuan-kuei, a section chief in Taipower's Tainan division, said the new solar energy facility is set to be built on the salt flats of Cigu District, which have become a popular site for solar energy developers.

Taipower has already installed 430 electricity feed lines in Tainan, and by the end of 2025 the number is expected to increase by 630, the report noted.

“It is expected that smart electricity grids will be widely used in Tainan from 2024, a year before the smart grid network is completed,” Hsu said.

The city government has reportedly finished a bidding process to determine contracts in several areas such as Sinshih, West-central, Northern, Eastern, Southern, Anping and Annan districts for roof-top solar power generation, and total capacity is expected to reach 14MW, Hsu added.

In addition to solar power development, Tainan is also looking to develop wider renewable energy with total capacity topping 512MW, the highest of all cities and counties in Taiwan.