The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) yesterday said alternative energy generation should be developed in Taiwan to replace nuclear energy, and approved a proposal demanding that the cities and counties it governs develop safer, green energy.
The proposal, initiated by former premier Frank Hsieh (謝長廷), suggests that geothermal power could be developed in Yilan County and solar power should be developed in southern cities and counties, such as Yunlin, Greater Tainan, Greater Kaohsiung and Pingtung, where sunlight is abundant.
Taiwan has an abundance of the natural resources required to develop alternative energy and has among the largest energy-saving and renewable energy equipment production in the world, and there is no reason why it should not develop green energy, DPP Chairman Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) told the party’s weekly Central Standing Committee (CSC) meeting.
State-owned Taiwan Power Co’s (Taipower) monopoly explains why Taiwan has been slow in developing alternative energy to replace nuclear energy, Su said.
“It’s time for the government to set a goal of alternative energy development and stop wasting taxpayers’ money on nuclear energy, so that Taiwanese and future generations no longer live in fear of a nuclear disaster,” Su told the meeting.
Lin Ching-fuh (林清富), chairman of National Taiwan University’s Graduate Institute of Photonics and Optoelectronics, briefed the meeting in his report on low-cost solar power, DPP spokesperson Lin Chun-hsien (林俊憲) said.
The spokesperson said that according to the professor, the cost of solar power, which accounts for only 0.07 percent of annual electricity output in Taiwan, would gradually decrease and could be lower than the cost of nuclear power in only five years.
Also to Taiwan’s advantage are the more than 160 companies and a complete upstream and downstream supply chain in the solar energy sector, the spokesperson said, although less than 3 percent of the companies’ products are sold in the domestic market.
Solar power installation in an area of 100km2 would be able to generate the same output of the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant in Gongliao District (貢寮), New Taipei City (新北市), showing that the controversial plant is not necessary, as the government claims, Lin Chun-hsien said.
An amendment of the Electricity Act (電業法), which eases regulations on alternative energy development, would be crucial, but the DPP understood that the amendment requires time in the legislature, which was why the party decided to begin with developing such energy in the region it governs, the spokesperson said.
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