Taipei, Taiwan (May 18, 2023) – Located along the Pacific Ring of Fire, Taiwan is known for its abundant geothermal energy, estimated at a potential 40GW. As a result, geothermal development is one of the key strategies in the government of Taiwan’s Pathway to Net-Zero Emissions in 2050. In order to speed geothermal development and build local talent and expertise, Baseload Power Taiwan initiated a MOU with seven partners at the 2023 Annual Geosciences Conference. These partners include institutions and universities from the geoscience field, including the Geological Society Located in Taipei, the Taiwan Geothermal Association, Science and Technology Energy in the Research Institute for De-Carbonization at NTU, the Department of Geological Sciences at NTU, the Department of Earth Sciences at NTNU, the Department of Geology at CCU and the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences at NCCU.      

This partnership between industry, non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and academia focuses on three areas of collaboration across the geothermal field:

• Baseload Power Taiwan will provide internship programs to bridge the gap between industry and higher education, provide practical experience to help build local talent and encourage more young professionals to join the industry;
• All parties will participate in knowledge-sharing and networking activities, leveraging Baseload’s global platform and experiences, as well as academia’s local networks;
• All parties will promote Our Hidden Powers, a children’s book designed to raise awareness of geothermal energy among the general public.

“We have many outstanding experts and talents in the field of geology and geoscience in Taiwan,” said Wen-Shan Chen, Chairman of the Geological Society Located in Taipei. “As the geothermal industry has been emerging in Taiwan, we need more local talents and research to participate in the field and connect their expertise to practise. One of our missions is to facilitate novel research and knowledge of geoscience, so we are glad to join in the MOU and establish the platform together with all parties. We look forward to enhancing geothermal energy education and talent development.”“While we are committed to developing geothermal energy, we are also willing to dedicate our global network and experiences to local talent building,” said Van Hoang, Chairman and CEO of Baseload Power Taiwan. “It would be our honour to empower professionals, foster the academic network and connect the global platform to the local market with the joint efforts from leading NGOs and universities. We are also pleased to share the children’s book Our Hidden Powers in order to educate and entertain people about geothermal energy in a fun way. The traditional Chinese version is coming soon to the market in June, and it will be the first children's book introducing geothermal energy in Taiwan.”