Electricity usage during the summer continues to rise every year. This year, the problem has been compounded by cooling pumps breaking down and transmission towers being toppled by typhoons.
The government’s aim to avoid power rationing in the short term looks under threat and its plan to phase out nuclear power and have 20 percent of the energy supply come from renewable sources by 2020 is being challenged.
Another issue that might seem unrelated but affects everyone is that, in the future, people might not have to worry about vehicle emissions and fuel consumption standards.
Last month, the UK followed France’s lead and announced that it would ban the sale of gasoline and diesel cars from 2040. Norway a year ago announced that it would introduce a similar ban in 2025 and India has set the date for 2030. Several other nations have set sales targets for electric vehicles and Paris, Madrid, Mexico City and Athens plan to ban diesel vehicles by 2025.
The elimination of gasoline and diesel cars and Taiwan’s potential power rationing is a warning that power supply is not only a matter of the power grid reliability, but also of how these two issues affect each other.
People will not only need a grid capable of supplying power, but one that supplies clean power. This is why several large corporations, such as Google, Walmart, Facebook and Apple, are moving toward using 100 percent renewable energy sources.
It might be technically and economically feasible to satisfy power needs with large volumes of renewable energy thanks to developments in energy storage, load balancing and supply balancing.
The price of lithium-ion batteries for electric vehicles has dropped by 65 percent since 2010, and with the development of more abundant and cheaper materials, prices could continue to drop, making it cost-efficient to use batteries to store standard energy.
If we are to address the current difficulties, the nation’s power grid will have to rely on renewable energy. However, just as with electric vehicles, the future of renewable energy remains controversial.
In 1985, then-US president Ronald Reagan tore down the solar panels on the White House’s rooftop, announced that the nation’s energy policy was a mistake and stopped investing in renewable energy.
However, even without federal support, California and other local governments have continued to make large investments in solar energy research, and last year, renewable energy was the biggest source of new contributions to the power grid.
The combined efforts of state and local governments — not the president — will lead the fight against climate change in the US.
While transformation to clean energy sources is the trend, there will be challenges. The speed at which nuclear power will be scrapped and power generation transformed must be set with an eye to real energy supply and demand. As energy use increases, so do the challenges.
The problems facing Taiwan have always been foreseeable. Whether they can be overcome will depend on the government’s ability to come up with an appropriate response. Given the atmosphere in Taiwanese society, it is foreseeable that calls to save energy for the good of the community will result in a backlash.
Faced with new kinds of transportation and energy sources, the government will have to take on an even more important role that will be focused mainly on building an environment conducive to the required developments, for example by providing incentives, capital and interest rate subsidies, viability gap funding, preferential funding and financial rewards.
However, it is even more important to set up an overall long-term program focused on the development of renewable energy sources.
The key to this plan must be a focus on improving the flexibility of the power grid, developing basic infrastructure capable of meeting the demands of electric vehicle expansion, and investing in the technologies and facilities for storing energy.
It is unavoidable that the phasing out of gasoline and diesel cars will have an effect on certain industries. With sufficient vision and foresight, and by making the right preparations, it would be possible to set the stage for new industrial developments.
Whether that will happen will depend on the government’s vision and actions.
Hua Jian is an associate professor of marine engineering at National Taiwan Ocean University.
Translated by Perry Svensson
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