Analysis of Levelized Cost of Kuroshio Energy in Taiwan (SDEWES2016.0024)

Taiwan is surrounded by sea with 1,566 km of coastline. A primary assessment of marine energy that incorporates the energy reserves, derivative economic benefit, cleanness and sustainability, energy stability, and cost competitiveness shows that wave energy, thermoelectric energy, and marine current energy have the greatest potential for development in Taiwan. Among them, the fixed direction of current flow gives it a great deal of potential for power generation, and thus it has started to draw attention in many counties. The Kuroshio off the east coast of Taiwan is part of the global ocean current system. If ocean current power generation technology can be successfully developed, its power generation efficiency would be greater than that of intermittent energy such as solar and wind. Power generation from the Kuroshio can provide the base load electricity in Taiwan, increasing Taiwan’s self-sufficiency rate and safety of energy. However, the initial phase of developing the Kuroshio power generation in Taiwan requires huge capital investment, and issues such as economic benefit and market competitiveness must be considered.

The levelized cost of electricity (LCOE) for natural gas-fired in the main island of Taiwan is about 3.6 NTD/kWh, and the average cost of electricity in Green Island (one of Taiwan's Offshore Islands) is about 13.5 NTD/kWh. In order to let Kuroshio power be competitive in market, this report presents an analysis of the LCOE for the development of Kuroshio power generation under three different scenario in Taiwan, 2MW, 30MW and 110 MW scenario respectively. Based on the scenario analysis of Taiwan's first 30MW Kuroshio power demonstration farm development, the LCOE is around 4.86-11.17 NTD/kWh at a discount rate of 15%, which is still higher than TaiPower's natural gas power generation cost of 3.57 NTD/kWh. In order to increase the industry’s willing to invest in Kuroshio power development, it is necessary to have the support from the government. Taiwan government could formulate marine spatial planning properly, doing preliminary investigation to zone the area suitable for Kuroshio power development, it would reduce more project cost.

台灣發展黑潮發電之均化成本分析

台灣四面環海，以能源蘊藏量、衍生性經濟效益、潔淨永續、能源穩定性以及成本競爭性對海洋能源進行初步評估，則波浪、溫差與洋流能最具有發展性。其中，洋流的流向固定，發電潛能大，在許多國家開始受到關注。台灣東部海域的黑潮即為全球洋流系統的一環，若能成功開發洋流發電技術，則發電效益較太陽能、風力等間歇性能源佳的黑潮發電將有望成為我國基載電力，提升能源自給率及安全性。然而台灣開發黑潮發電前期需投入龐大資金，需要考慮經濟效益以及市場競爭力，故本研究將分析台灣發展黑潮發電之均化成本以及各成本區塊之比例，以探討成本下降之可能性。

國際海流發電產業發展現況

目前國際上已有多國投入海流發電相關計畫，許多廠商也開始研發設計海流發電機及相關設備，國內亦有廠商投入此一行列。台灣沿岸的黑潮屬於溫鹽環流，為具有環境優勢的潔淨能源，且因不需要燃料供應，是國內少數具規模的自主能源，且黑潮有穩定、高容量因子的特性，用以發電具備作為基載電力的條件。有鑑於此，本文針對全球海流發電產業技術推動現況進行探討，提供我國相關產業發展之參考。