Innovative Promotion of Renewable Energy Development for Challenging Sustainable Low-Carbon Society: Case Study of Pingtung County, Taiwan

Pingtung County, located in the southernmost part of Taiwan, has been selected as one of the Smarter Cities Challenge by the International Business Machines (IBM) in 2013 due to its innovative promotion for renewable energy exploitation in recent years. In this regard, the objective of this paper will be to present an in-depth analysis of the success of environmental sustainability efforts through aggressive measures and profitable plans by this tropical county. The description in the paper is, thus, summarized on the central regulations and economic measures for promoting renewable energy in Taiwan, focusing on the feed-in tariff (FIT). Then, some innovative promotion plans for renewable energy in Pinugtung County, including swine-derived biogas-to-power and “Raise Water, Grow Electricity”, were further addressed to show the preliminary results under the funding supports of the central and local governments. With a practical basis of the total swine population (around 433,000 heads), from the farm scale of over 5,000 heads in Pingtung County, a preliminary analysis showed the annual benefits: methane reduction of 2.2 Gg, electricity generation of 8.3 × 10⁶ kilowatt-hour (kW-h), equivalent electricity charge saving of 8.3 × 10⁵ US Dollar (USD), and equivalent carbon dioxide mitigation of 50.9 thousand tons (Gg).