United Renewable Energy (URE) has signed a memorandum of understanding to provide project developer Ye Heng Power with 120 MW of PV modules for a solar array in Taiwan’s Changhua Coastal Industrial Park.
Hsinchu-based URE said that it will start delivering the glass-glass bifacial modules in the second half of this year. It claims that the 180 MW solar project that Ye Heng Power is building will be the largest offshore solar plant in Taiwan upon completion.
“Our two companies will continue to work closely together to build solar system projects,” said Sam Hong, the chairman of URE. “[We] are fully committed to support Taiwan to achieve 20 GW of cumulative solar power installations by 2025.”
Ye Heng Power – a project company owned by Partners Group, a Switzerland-based asset management firm – will install the solar panels at a site in Lunwei district, in the Changhua Coastal Industrial Park, on the west coast of Taiwan. The solar project will be built on reclaimed land in the industrial park, which URE says will be the biggest “green energy zone” on the island once it has been completed.
Ye Heng Power now has 200 MW of solar capacity in its portfolio, with a mix of operational projects and arrays that are still under construction. It eventually plans to install more than 800 MW of PV capacity in Taiwan.
URE claims that its total module orders have almost reached 500 MW, as developers on the island are starting to build a number of large-scale PV projects. In December, the company revealed plans to build a 193 MW solar project near the city of Tainan. The installation will be one of the largest ground-mounted PV arrays on the island upon completion.
However, developers of large PV projects in Taiwan still have to contend with a range of obstacles, mainly due to resistance from the government, other industrial players, and the agricultural sector. Just like in Japan and South Korea, land shortages are also a big issue for solar deployment in Taiwan.
