Measures proposed by the Bureau of Energy, which are to be implemented from next month to September, aim to encourage households and businesses to save energy and would require the public sector to reduce unnecessary use of lighting and air-conditioning.
The bureau estimates the measures would save 1,250 megawatts of electricity this summer.
There is ample room for the nation to enhance energy conservation and reduce power consumption by heavy users. However, what needs to be done is to change the behavior of users through different electricity rates for peak and off-peak hours.
If less power is consumed during peak hours, that would reduce demand for power generation while allowing a more efficient allocation of resources.
In the long run, the government’s pledge to make Taiwan nuclear-free by 2025 makes it even more important to speed up development of the “green” energy industry.
Taiwan is highly reliant on fuel imports, so it is seeking other energy sources as its fuel supplies are challenged by various factors, including transportation, safety and security issues. Businesses have also raised concerns about their production and profits being constrained by a tight electricity supply.
The government places increasing emphasis on solar power and offshore wind power generation, while trying to reduce reliance on coal. It is aiming for solar farms to generate 20 gigawatts of power by 2025, from less than 2 gigawatts last year, while building up to 1,000 more wind turbines over the next eight years.
The government’s energy blueprint envisions that renewable energy sources would contribute 20 percent of the nation’s total energy needs by 2025, compared with 4.8 percent last year. It also aims to boost electricity generated by natural gas plants to 50 percent of the total, from 32.4 percent.
As wind power is becoming a competitive source of electricity thanks to technological improvements and the development of larger turbines, and shows better returns on investment than solar power, investors from Denmark, Germany, Canada, Singapore and Australia have shown high interest in the past year in Taiwanese offshore wind projects, in addition to several domestic players.
The Ministry of Economic Affairs’ target is to increase wind-generated power capacity to 4,200 megawatts by 2025 to account for 33 percent of total renewable energy installations.
The ministry last month launched its National Renewable Energy Certificate center, which is expected to issue its first certificate before the end of next month, to attract foreign enterprises that want to be able to pledge to use “green” energy when investing or placing orders with local manufacturers.
A transition in Taiwan’s energy structure and people’s mindset is in the works, albeit slowly by the standards of development elsewhere in the world.
Despite people’s legitimate concerns about the safety of nuclear power plants and the pollution caused by coal-fired electricity generators, the government’s ambitious plans attempt to achieve a lot in a short period of time, and difficulties lie ahead with regard to consumers’ readiness to pay more to fund the transition, obtaining land for the construction of renewable energy generation facilities and the energy industry’s acquisition of technology and funding.
Public feedback is essential: Public concerns over stability of supply and development cost have presented a considerable challenge to the promotion of renewable energy, putting tremendous pressure on the public and private sectors while long-term developments are presented in an oversimplified way.
If done right, stimulating the development of “green” energy projects under the government’s Forward-looking Infrastructure Development Program could be a critical step forward.
A series of strong earthquakes in Hualien County not only caused severe damage in Taiwan, but also revealed that China’s power has permeated everywhere. A Taiwanese woman posted on the Internet that she found clips of the earthquake — which were recorded by the security camera in her home — on the Chinese social media platform Xiaohongshu. It is spine-chilling that the problem might be because the security camera was manufactured in China. China has widely collected information, infringed upon public privacy and raised information security threats through various social media platforms, as well as telecommunication and security equipment. Several former TikTok employees revealed
For the incoming Administration of President-elect William Lai (賴清德), successfully deterring a Chinese Communist Party (CCP) attack or invasion of democratic Taiwan over his four-year term would be a clear victory. But it could also be a curse, because during those four years the CCP’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) will grow far stronger. As such, increased vigilance in Washington and Taipei will be needed to ensure that already multiplying CCP threat trends don’t overwhelm Taiwan, the United States, and their democratic allies. One CCP attempt to overwhelm was announced on April 19, 2024, namely that the PLA had erred in combining major missions
The Constitutional Court on Tuesday last week held a debate over the constitutionality of the death penalty. The issue of the retention or abolition of the death penalty often involves the conceptual aspects of social values and even religious philosophies. As it is written in The Federalist Papers by Alexander Hamilton, James Madison and John Jay, the government’s policy is often a choice between the lesser of two evils or the greater of two goods, and it is impossible to be perfect. Today’s controversy over the retention or abolition of the death penalty can be viewed in the same way. UNACCEPTABLE Viewing the
At the same time as more than 30 military aircraft were detected near Taiwan — one of the highest daily incursions this year — with some flying as close as 37 nautical miles (69kms) from the northern city of Keelung, China announced a limited and selected relaxation of restrictions on Taiwanese agricultural exports and tourism, upon receiving a Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) delegation led by KMT legislative caucus whip Fu Kun-chi (傅崑萁). This demonstrates the two-faced gimmick of China’s “united front” strategy. Despite the strongest earthquake to hit the nation in 25 years striking Hualien on April 3, which caused