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Warnings of power cuts accompany green policy

"It looks like we'll have to rely on coal."

Chan Wen-hong, executive officer at the Bureau of Energy

As Taiwan grows more enthusiastic over the development of renewable energy, a researcher is suggesting that the government put the brakes on traveling in that direction before more energy is wasted.

"Many studies have found that the energy devoted to produce renewable energy and biofuel has exceeded output energy," Daigee Shaw (蕭代基), president of the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中經院), said at a press conference yesterday.

More energy is required to produce a solar cell than the cell can generate in its lifetime, Shaw said.

Attacking enthusiasm for cure-all renewable energy, Shaw said pollution and greenhouse gas emissions are still being generated during production of green energy.

Limited and unstable supplies of renewable energy, such as through wind power, solar power and hydraulic power, can hardly meet growing demand, Shaw said.

As a result, the government should review its energy policy and develop renewable energies that can yield net energy, he said.

The institution has submitted suggestions to the government for re-examining renewable energy policy. But the Cabinet insisted on a policy of pushing the installed capacity of renewable energy to 10 percent by 2010, Shaw said.

Taiwan imports more than 98 percent of its energy, and feels the pinch whenever energy prices rise.

The nation may suffer power shortages within five years unless additional generators are built, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said in June last year.

The government will favor plans for coal-fired stations when it awards contracts to build new capacity next year because they are cheaper to run and easier to supply than those fueled by gas.

"It looks like we'll have to rely on coal," Chan Wen-hong, an executive officer at the Bureau of Energy, said on Thursday.

Taiwan Power Co (Taipower, 台電) spends NT$1.32 (US$0.04) to generate a kilowatt-hour of electricity by burning coal, less than half the NT$2.94 cost of gas-fired production, according to chief engineer Tu Yueh-yuan (杜悅元).

The new projects aim to supply an extra 1,980 megawatts of capacity, enough to meet 5 percent of the nation's peak summer electricity demand. Tenders close on Dec. 5, and the government is likely to name two or three contract winners before the end of this February, Chan said.

"The choice of coal is pragmatic," Jeffrey Bor (柏雲昌), a CIER economist, said yesterday. "Coal is the only reliable fuel for power in Taiwan."

Gas-fired power plants are less favored because of shortages in supply and the time needed to build pipelines, he said.
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