Fishery and electricity symbiosis is New Green Power’s next main focus

New Green Power has actively faced challenges at multiple solar panel sites in their eight years of establishment. The Company has accumulated experience in the project construction containing rooftop type, ground type, or floating type, as well as their most recent projects with fishery and electricity symbiosis involved. New Green Power already finished Taiwan’s first site of this type in 2018, and plan to finish construction on another site in Tainan, making their total capacity reach 123 MW. Andy states that fishery and electricity symbiosis is the Company’s next main focus in the upcoming years, and they hope to develop these sites in other areas as well.

The Tainan site is in development by New Green Power and Taiyen Green energy. It has already passed an environmental and community inspection to confirm that it will not harm the environment, but it still is facing some resistance from other parties. At first, farmers feared that in cleaning solar panels, workers would use chemical agents to dissolve any toxic substances on the support. During contract negotiation, farmers began to suspect that they would lose their land and livelihood, but after effective communication and compromise, both parties reached an agreement.

To this, Andy discussed that the question on whether cleaning solar panel supports would dissolve toxins is easy to answer. The farmers’ biggest concern is if the landlord gives New Green Power the right to install solar panels, then they will drive away the farmers of the land. This fear stems from unknown knowledge. Company workers state that whether or not the site is successful relies on the fish-catching rate exceeding 70%, and they fear that if farmers do not continue to cultivate these fisheries and the catch rate is lower than 70%, the plant could suffer significantly.

Andy says “The key to success at these sites with fishery and electricity symbiosis is communication. There are many high stakeholders involved, unlike for rooftop and ground-mounted solar panel sites. The owner and landlord both have to be in agreement for this to work out.” Even though farmers are mainly in contact with Taiyen green energy, the Company is different from other companies that develop these sites. They will repeatedly confirm with the landlord and farmers if they consent to the work being done to avoid potential conflict.

In order to take care of production, New Green Power will first consult with farmers for suggestions before planning and designing the sites with fishery and electricity symbiosis. The Company was able use farmer suggestions and experience in areas such as methods of harvesting and breeding species of fish, deciding which breeding ponds are most convenient, finding the most suitable site format, and starting construction during the area’s fixed dry period. The Company will also commission teams to continue monitoring every breeding pond to confirm that production is exceeding 70% after construction.