Development strategy of green energy industry for Taipei—A modern medium-sized city

Taipei, a subtropical modern medium city, is essentially featured with high population density, scarce land, and large traffic flow. Moreover, there are abundant green energy resources reserved in Taipei. If they were fully developed, there would be 13,040 GWh electricity generated per year, resulting in a total of 9.37 million tons of carbon dioxide emissions abatement. The development of the green energy industry in this city not only can bring significant energy-saving and carbon-reducing benefits, but also may create huge derivative business opportunities. For example, the total output values of the solar PV and electric vehicles industries would be as high as 700 billion yuan. In this study, through Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats (SWOT) analysis, we concluded that the top priorities for Taipei for the development of green energy industries are building energy conservation and electrified transportation, specifically, the following four items: electric vehicles, Light-Emitting Diode (LED) lighting, inverter air conditioning, and Energy Service Company (ESCO). Meanwhile, Taipei is a domestic and international key of politics, transportation, technology, commerce, and finance. Taipei is very likely to become an internationalized green energy industrial hub, achieving the “3E” goals of economic prosperousness, environmental protection, and energy security.