2023-08-17 01:24:22
Ditches can generate electricity too! “Small hydropower” power plants are being developed, small plants in Taiwan Chemical and Yilan sell green power to TSMC
Text: Liu Guangying Photo source: Photo by Wang Jiandong
Taihua’s small hydroelectric power plant, which has been operating silently for 20 years, has been sold to TSMC for more than a year when the demand for green power is urgent. The asking price is even cheaper than Taipower. Not only big companies, but small start-ups are also investing. As long as flowing water has the opportunity to generate electricity, the test is whether the Taiwanese have thought of it.
Few people know that there are actually three small hydroelectric power plants hidden next to the Wushantou Reservoir. They were developed by Formosa Chemicals, one of the Four Treasures of Formosa Plastics. The drop of the meter “water head” drives the water turbine to rotate and generate electricity. As long as there is water, it will flow continuously. Moreover, since last year, the green power generated by the Wushantou and Xikou units has been sold to TSMC.
These power plants are very small: the total installed capacity is only 22MW (thousand kilowatts), which is one seventieth of the Mingtan Reservoir, and the construction cost is less than 1 billion yuan. Why does Taihua, with an annual revenue of 380 billion, come to do small hydropower?
“Our purpose in developing small water power has never been to make a profit,” said Hong Fuyuan, chairman of Taihua.
Low energy consumption, low environmental impact, Taihua has been doing it for 20 years
According to the definition of the Renewable Energy Development Regulations, the so-called “small hydropower” refers to the capacity of power generation devices below 20MW, which is less than one-third of that of general large-scale hydropower plants. Usually, the natural water volume and drop of existing roads or pipelines are used to drive turbines to generate electricity, without the need to build a large water storage tank, which has the advantages of low energy consumption and low environmental impact.
The green power generated by Lushui in Wushantou has been running silently for more than 20 years. In the past, it was sold to Taipower for less than 2 yuan. In the past two years, all Taiwanese companies have been scrambling for green power. The supply exceeds demand, and the price of electricity has skyrocketed.
Taihua’s hydropower green power has also been sold to TSMC since last year. However, compared with the current wholesale electricity price of Taipower’s small hydropower that once exceeded 4 yuan, the price Taiwan Chemical sells to TSMC is actually lower.
“I don’t want to make money from Taipower,” Hong Fuyuan said with wide-eyed eyes, “because making money from Taipower is making money from future generations.”
Hong Fuyuan even admitted that in the past he was actually opposed to green electricity because the cost was too high. He is careful regarding budgeting, and he always pays attention to international coal and natural gas prices. However, he observed that following the Ukrainian-Russian War, international energy prices fluctuated violently. He believes that investing in green power has reached a sweet spot, that is, the cost of investing in green power is already lower than investing in fossil fuel power generation.
Another reason worth investing in is to find stable green electricity for Taiwan. According to Taihua, the power generation capacity factor of photovoltaic and wind power (the proportion of annual actual power generation to the ideal maximum power generation) is not high, and photovoltaic is only regarding 15%, that is, only 15% of the time that power generation equipment can generate electricity in a year; wind power Slightly higher, regarding 30%, but the capacity factor of small hydraulic power can be as high as 80%. With the same device capacity, the annual green power generated by small hydraulic power is 5 times that of photovoltaics and 3 times that of wind power.
It is also selling small hydraulic power to TSMC. Not only big whales like Taiwan Chemical have invested in it, but more small shrimps have also appeared. Yilan Sanxing Township has an example.
High standards and high costs, Yilan small factory hopes to localize
The rubber boats of the tourists on the Annong River slide down the slide in the river, but there is a rumbling blue-green power generation equipment next to it. A part of the rushing stream is guided to the turbine through the water channel, and the power is generated due to the drop. .
Although this Turbulent unit imported from Belgium is only 100kW, it has made great achievements in a small way. It generates 700,000 kWh of renewable energy electricity a year, which is equivalent to a photoelectric field the size of 1.5 football fields. However, this small hydroelectric power plant is expensive, and the construction cost is as high as 40 million. The main reason is that the competent government unit requires durability, so the team had to use steel structure cement.
In the future, Zou Feilu hopes to find a supplier in Taiwan and develop a unit suitable for Taiwan, self-made turbine and speed increaser. If a high degree of localization is achieved, the cost of the unit is expected to be reduced by at least 30%, which will help the promotion of small hydraulic power to more place.
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