Taiwan Urged to Develop Green-Energy Storage Technology

Taipei, Oct. 4, 2011 (CENS)--Taiwan must aim to specially develop green-energy storage technology as a national R&D project, said Premier Wu Den-yih at the recent weekly Cabinet meeting, with other officials saying electric vehicles (EVs) connected to intelligent power grids are expected to be part of energy-storage facility in the future.

Premier Wu stressed that currently intelligent EVs are hindered by safety, cruise range, price and convenience, issues that must be overcome before becoming truly popular mass transport, and has assigned the National Science Council (NSC) of the Cabinet and the Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA) to further develop energy-storage technologies to make breakthroughs that could help more effective use of green energies.

Tu Tsu-chun, director general of the Industrial Development Bureau (IDB) under the MOEA, said the advantages of compactness, lightweight and higher safety of lithium-ion battery makes it the developmental focus for the global energy industry, with such battery to serve as short-term storage medium in a power grid to adjust energy utilization during peak and off-peak periods.

Some ranking officials said that EVs could be recharged at home late at night with lower rate and driven as a power carrier in the day. The Automotive Research & Testing Center (ARTC) has begun negotiations with the Bureau of Energy (BOE) to develop solutions.

Industry insiders say that replacing about one in 10 cars of the around six million in Taiwan with EVs would save the Taiwan Power Co. the cost to build a new nuclear power plant. In addition, business opportunities generated from the shift, such as intelligent metering, circuit changes and related hardware/software, would be very lucrative.

All major nations are researching separating energy storage facilities, insiders say, and Taiwan should step up efforts to become a major player to tap more business opportunities in the future.