TAIPEI (Taiwan News) -- The scorching hot sun seen in Taiwan on Monday (Sept. 2) had an unexpected benefit: 2 Gigawatts (GW) of power was generated, more than that of Taiwan's biggest nuclear power plant.
Western Taiwan saw sizzling temperatures on Monday, with Taipei, New Taipei, and Taoyuan all flashing yellow heat alerts. As a result, solar photovoltaic (PV) power generation in the country peaked at 2 GW, surpassing any of Taiwan's nuclear power plants, reported Liberty Times.
On Monday, the mercury in Taoyuan climbed to 36 degrees Celsius. Taiwan Power Co. (Taipower) estimated that power consumption that day reached 35.2 GW, while the maximum power supply was 39.6 GW, a reserve margin of 13.19 percent, an ample level of reserve power supply.
When sunshine reached its peak on Monday, solar PV generation broke past the threshold of 2 GW for the first time in Taiwan. At 11:40 p.m., solar power generation reached 2.09 GW, accounting for 5.89 percent of the power supply, surpassing Taiwan's largest nuclear power plant, the second nuclear power plant (1.97 GW) or the third nuclear power plant (1.9 GW), according to the report.
Presently, a two-year PV promotion project launched by the government has expired, but the Ministry of Economic Affairs' Bureau of Energy (BOE) has devised a new two-year PV promotion plan. The original target of achieving 20 GW in solar power by 2025 remains unchanged, while targets of 3.7 GW by the end of 2019 and 6.5 GW by the end of 2020 have been set.
In July of 2016, the target was set at 1.52 GW and by the end of 2018, the target of 1.78 GW was achieved. Of that solar power generated, 1.491 GW came from rooftop solar panels, while 0.28 GW came from ground-mounted solar panels.