Taiwan's Taipower ends Hsinta biomass conversion plan

Taiwanese state-owned utility Taipower has terminated its plan to convert a coal-fired generation unit into a dedicated biomass unit at its Hsinta power plant in Kaohsiung city.

Taipower had set up a task force in 2022 to facilitate the usage of biomass by converting the fuel used at the Hsinta unit 1 from coal to wood pellets. But Taipower has decided to terminate the plan to follow "government instructions", it said.

The four coal-fired units at the Hsinta power plant will remain "at readiness" in line with national security reasons, following government instructions, Taipower said. Taipower's related sectors will continue to evaluate suitable locations for the use of wood pellets, the company added.

The plan to convert the 500MW coal-fired unit was in March pushed back to up to 2030. The coal-fired unit was part of two units decommissioned in late 2023. The plant has a nameplate capacity of 4.3GW.

The unit was planned to be converted by 2025, but this was subsequently delayed to 2027.

Taiwan has already decided to stop building new coal-fired power plants by 2025 and build a zero-carbon fuel supply system, according to Taiwan's Pathway to Net Zero Emissions in 2050 report.

Taiwan currently generates over 40pc of its electricity from coal, with its coal-fired power plants generating 119.9TWh out of a total 281.4TWh in 2023, according to data from Taiwan's energy bureau. The country imported 58.9mn t of thermal coal last year, down by 6.9pc from 2022.

Taiwan imported 4.99mn t of thermal coal in May, little changed from a year earlier but up from 4.91mn t in April, preliminary data released by Taiwanese customs last month show. Taiwan bought 22.7mn t of imported thermal coal between January-May, slipping from 23mn t a year earlier.

By Andrew Jones