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Taipower Linkou proposal gets conditional approval

The Taiwan Power Company’s (Taipower) proposal to expand its Linkou plant (林口) in Taipei County — another long debated development — yesterday received a conditional green light pending drastic carbon-offsetting measures.

Taipower received partial approval from the Envrionmental Protection Administration’s Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) committee yesterday, after promising it would plant 1 million trees to offset the additional carbon emissions.

However, the Taipei County Government yesterday expressed doubts that enough land could be found in the county to plant that many trees.

The Taipower case is the second one passed under a carbon reduction condition since May. Last month, Dragon Steel Corp, a unit of China Steel Corp, received a pass pending a 15 percent cut in its total emissions, which may cost the company NT$1.5 billion to achieve.

Although the Taipei County Government as well as environmental groups expressed opposition to the expansion plan, the EIA committee approved Taipower’s application to add additional generators to meet northern Taiwan’s increasing electricity demands.

The decision was based upon the case subcommittee’s recommendation on June 6 that Taipower could get the new generators if it could plant 1 million trees in Taipei County.

“The Linkou power plant has a million-megawatt capacity. However, as electricity needs continue to increase, if the plant continues to operate using the current machines, northern Taiwan may face a power shortage by 2013,” Taipower spokeswoman Tu Yueh-yuan (杜悅元) said.

“If the plant continues to use the old generators, more emissions would be produced,” she said.

Also, the electricity need would not go away: northern Taiwan would have to get its electricity from other plants in the country,” she said.

In response to the EIA verdict, Cheng Hui-fen (鄭惠芬), EIA and planning section chief of Taipei County’s Environmental Protection Bureau, said the county government was skeptical that Taipower would be able to fulfill its promise.

“To plant a million trees, roughly 1,000 hectares of land would be needed — where in Taipei County would you find that kind of space?” Cheng said.
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