Impact of COVID-19 on energy use patterns and renewable energy development in Taiwan

Abstract

ABSTRACT The COVID-19 pandemic has affected economic activities in the various sectors due to different levels of lockdown like border closure, stay at home, and social distancing. In this regard, energy use patterns are bound to change. The objective of this paper was to analyze the changes of energy supply and energy consumption in Taiwan through the official database due to the COVID-19 pandemic in the first quarter (Q1) of 2020. In addition, some governmental measures were addressed in response to COVID-19 impacts on renewable energy development, especially in off-shore wind power and solar photovoltaic (PV). It was revealed that the results of the change analysis in energy supply and energy consumption were in line with those in the literature. The Taiwan’s energy supply and energy consumption showed a decrease by 4.7% and 4.3% on a year-on-year basis (YoY), respectively. More consistently, the petroleum consumption per capita indicated a decreasing trend at this period, but the electricity consumption per capita showed an upward increase over the Q1 of past decade (2010–2020). However, the electricity consumption slightly increased by 2.2% mainly due to the increase of the electrical and electronic machinery industry in the industrial sector for the strong demand in overseas markets. In addition, the electricity consumption in the residential sector also increased by 5.1% in response to the lockdown measures like stay-at-home learning and working. Apart from the epidemic prevention measures for assisting the off-shore power project constructions, some financial and economic relief measures have been taken to mitigate the COVID-19 impacts on the renewable energy (RE) development, especially in solar PV system.