The government is caught between energy and the environment. Despite its clear and definite goal of building a nuclear-free homeland, it has found itself in a quandary, due to a worsening air pollution exacerbated by Taiwan Power Co’s (Taipower) policy last year of reducing nuclear power supply and increasing thermal power supply.
Before Taiwan can enjoy clean and sustainable “green” energy, it should steadily reduce nuclear power and rapidly increase sustainable energy supply to avoid supply instability.
The Ministry of Economic Affairs has released statistics on the structure of electricity generation over the past year, and the percentage of nuclear power generation was below 10 percent for the first time, as it declined by 8.9 terawatt-hours (TWh) from the previous year.
The reasons for the drastic decline are simple: Due to problems, such as full spent fuel rod pools, collapsed transmission towers and loose handles discovered on a fuel rod cask, only two of the nation’s six nuclear reactors were in operation during the peak period last year.
Electricity is necessary for economic development and people’s livelihood. Since stabilizing the electricity supply is a primary task for the government, it can rely on thermal power generation in full capacity to cover the shortage from nuclear power generation.
According to Taipower statistics, the total amount of coal and gas power generation increased by more than 15TWh last year. Due to Taipower’s policy of reducing the nuclear power supply and the increasing thermal power supply, the electricity supply was barely able to meet demand during the peak period, and in fall and winter, an air pollution crisis happened.
The crisis hit central and southern Taiwan the hardest. The coal-fired Taichung Power Plant and Kaohsiung’s Hsinta Power Plant became targets of criticism, and those two cities’ governments issued restrictions in an effort to reduce coal-fired power generation.
The proposed rebuilding of the Shenao Power Plant in New Taipei City’s Rueifang District (瑞芳) has been facing protests, while putting Taipower in a quandary between power supply and environmental protection.
The goal of turning Taiwan into a nuclear-free homeland by 2025 has been written into the Electricity Act (電業法), but whether the government can achieve this goal depends on whether it can come up with a sound energy policy.
The percentage of renewable energy in the nation’s total energy supply fell last year. Taipower put it down to bad luck, saying the volume of hydro power generation fell due to unfavorable hydrological conditions.
Although the volume of green energy fell by less than 0.4TWh in total, it was undoubtedly a warning to the government, which has tried to boost green energy.
While the government wants to abolish nuclear power, it still needs to stabilize overall power supply. Luckily, the benefits of solar power installations are gradually emerging.
According to Taipower, roof-mounted solar power panels are effective in both central and southern Taiwan, thanks to plenty of sunshine in these areas. Together, they provided almost 1 gigawatts in the latest peak period — as high as the power supply volume of a nuclear power unit. Such contributions should not go unnoticed.
The path to a nuclear-free homeland is inevitably a painful one still in the transitional phase.
Therefore, the government should reduce nuclear power generation steadily to relieve the temporary pains brought by the transition.
Lin Ching-hua is a journalist for the Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister newspaper).
Translated by Eddy Chang
Saudi Arabian largesse is flooding Egypt’s cultural scene, but the reception is mixed. Some welcome new “cooperation” between two regional powerhouses, while others fear a hostile takeover by Riyadh. In Cairo, historically the cultural capital of the Arab world, Egyptian Minister of Culture Nevine al-Kilany recently hosted Saudi Arabian General Entertainment Authority chairman Turki al-Sheikh. The deep-pocketed al-Sheikh has emerged as a Medici-like patron for Egypt’s cultural elite, courted by Cairo’s top talent to produce a slew of forthcoming films. A new three-way agreement between al-Sheikh, Kilany and United Media Services — a multi-media conglomerate linked to state intelligence that owns much of
The US and other countries should take concrete steps to confront the threats from Beijing to avoid war, US Representative Mario Diaz-Balart said in an interview with Voice of America on March 13. The US should use “every diplomatic economic tool at our disposal to treat China as what it is... to avoid war,” Diaz-Balart said. Giving an example of what the US could do, he said that it has to be more aggressive in its military sales to Taiwan. Actions by cross-party US lawmakers in the past few years such as meeting with Taiwanese officials in Washington and Taipei, and
Denmark’s “one China” policy more and more resembles Beijing’s “one China” principle. At least, this is how things appear. In recent interactions with the Danish state, such as applying for residency permits, a Taiwanese’s nationality would be listed as “China.” That designation occurs for a Taiwanese student coming to Denmark or a Danish citizen arriving in Denmark with, for example, their Taiwanese partner. Details of this were published on Sunday in an article in the Danish daily Berlingske written by Alexander Sjoberg and Tobias Reinwald. The pretext for this new practice is that Denmark does not recognize Taiwan as a state under
The Republic of China (ROC) on Taiwan has no official diplomatic allies in the EU. With the exception of the Vatican, it has no official allies in Europe at all. This does not prevent the ROC — Taiwan — from having close relations with EU member states and other European countries. The exact nature of the relationship does bear revisiting, if only to clarify what is a very complicated and sensitive idea, the details of which leave considerable room for misunderstanding, misrepresentation and disagreement. Only this week, President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) received members of the European Parliament’s Delegation for Relations