Promoting the Circular Economy via Waste-to-Power (WTP) in Taiwan

Wen-Tien Tsai
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Wen-Tien Tsai: Graduate Institute of Bioresources, National Pingtung University of Science and Technology, Pingtung 912, Taiwan

Resources, 2019, vol. 8, issue 2, 1-9

Abstract: The waste management sector significantly contributes to emissions of ambient air pollutants and greenhouse gases, especially in sanitary landfills. In this regard, Taiwan is moving toward a circular economy society via resource recycling and waste-to-power (WTP) in the waste management. In the past decade, the recycling rate of general waste (including recyclable waste, kitchen waste, and bulk waste) increased from 40.97% in 2008 to 60.22% in 2017. On the other hand, 24 large-scale waste incineration plants gained about 2.5 TW-h of net electricity generation, based on 6.25 million metric tons of waste incinerated in 2017. The objectives of this paper are to update the status of waste generation and its WTP in Taiwan. Based on these updated data, the preliminary benefit analysis of WTP showed annual benefits of equivalent electricity charge of around $US 3.3 × 10 8 (using the feed-in-tariff rate 3.8945 NTD$/kW-h; 1 $US ≈ 30 NTD$) and equivalent CO 2 mitigation of about 1.4 million metric tons (using the electricity emissions factor 0.55 kg CO 2 equivalent/kW-h). In order to gain environmental, energy, and economic benefits, the regulatory and technological measures for promoting WTP are briefly summarized to create another low-carbon society in Taiwan.

Keywords: municipal solid waste; waste-to-power; feed-in-tariff; benefit analysis; regulatory promotion (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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