Taiwan at the crossroads of a new energy policy

As legislators from different political camps were debating the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant (核四廠) at the Legislative Yuan last week, energy experts from developed countries were disseminating the newest concepts of energy at an international conference in Taipei.

One of the keynote speakers, Christopher Flavin, president of the World Watch Institute, a research-oriented environmental organization in the US, outlined a new energy economy for the future -- one that may be highly efficient and decentralized, using a range of sophisticated electronics.

"The primary energy resources for this new system may be the most abundant ones on Earth: the sun, the wind, and other `renewable' sources of energy," Flavin said.

And over time, Flavin argued, hydrogen -- the lightest and most abundant element in the universe -- may become the main fuel for the 21st century, derived at first from natural gas and agricultural residues, but later produced from water using solar and other renewable energy sources.

"The implications of a shift to a solar-hydrogen economy are profound. A solar-hydrogen economy would be based on resources that are more abundant and more evenly distributed," Flavin said, adding that the world would be freed from dependence on oil, for example, finally ending the geopolitical nightmare that has preoccupied national security planners for the last half-century.

Practical Information for Taiwan

According to Flavin, access to petroleum was the underlying factor behind many of the 20th century's international conflicts -- from the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in 1945 to the Persian Gulf War in 1991 -- and has become synonymous with the power balances among Western economies, the Middle East and the developing world.

Energy experts, however, say that new technologies in the energy sector might rearrange the distribution of political and economic powers on the world map.

Examples from many countries around the world where these new technologies are used in economical and competitive ways were discussed last week at the International Conference on Sustainable Energy and Environmental Strategies: Taiwan and the World, held by the Institute for National Policy Research (國策研究院) and the US-based Center for Energy and Environmental Policy (CEEP) of the School of Urban Affairs and Public Policy at the University of Delaware.

"If it [adopting new technologies] can work in all of these places, surely it can work also in Taiwan," John Byrne, director of CEEP, told the Taipei Times.

Byrne said that Japan is beginning to use these technologies, while many European countries, the US and Australia have made more aggressive efforts.

"It's time for Taiwan to join the new generation," Byrne said, adding that both the research capability of the high-technology industry in Taiwan and the business management administration system here form a firm basis for transforming Taiwan into a more competitive country.

Although practical information regarding cost-effective, renewable energy and energy efficient technologies was provided at the conference, experts said that whether Taiwan would eventually benefit from these developments was still uncertain.

Byrne said that the most difficult part for Taiwan in moving forward to join the class of competitive countries was in making proper energy policies. "For example, opening the market for electricity at customer levels will be the first step," Byrne said.