Taiwan is facing a challenge of reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Focusing on transitioning from coal and other fossil fuels to renewable energy sources, including biomass, solar, and wind, the country aims to increase the use of renewable energy from 10 percent to 20 percent by 2025. This is a part of Taiwan’s nuclear-free homeland vision and to support the island’s national goal to reach net-zero carbon emission in 2050. Developing renewable energy is the most important implementation component to reach the goal and wood pellets are a top priority. 

The Wood Pellet Association of Canada, together with the Canadian Trade Office in Taipei and the Taiwan Bio-energy Technology Development Association, is organizing a trade mission to Taiwan on March 11-15, 2024. The mission will include four days of visiting prospective customers and their facilities and a one-day conference on the potential Taiwan market.  

The 2024 Taiwan Solid Biofuels Conference on March 14, 2024 in Taipei includes information on production, transportation, storage, loading and unloading, pricing,  current usage, and future prospects. The conference will help domestic industries and government agencies understand international solid biofuel development and market trends and help plan for a low-carbon transformation.

Taiwan is expected to import significant quantities of wood pellets to meet their new green energy production goals. Taiwan authorities’ commitment to generate sustainable bioenergy by burning wood pellets could translate into a 450 million CAD wood pellet trade opportunity.

As an example of the market potential, state-owned Taiwan Power Company (Taipower) has decided to convert the 500-megawatt (MW) Number 1 coal-fired boiler in its Kaohsiung Hsinta Power Plant into a low-carbon biomass energy generation system specializing in burning wood pellets.  This marks the first domestic case of transforming a decommissioned coal-fired unit into a biomass energy generation facility, serving as a technology demonstration for the transition of large-scale coal systems to clean energy in Taiwan.

The new wood pellet heat boiler is set to begin operating in 2025/2026. According to Taipower, the converted biomass facility will consume 1.7 million metric tons of industrial grade wood pellets annually. There are also many independent power producers who use coal boilers to produce electricity, especially for plastics, petroleum and paper manufacturing.

Stay tuned for what we discovered while in Taiwan.