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Toward renewable energy sources

During the coming weeks, the already heated debate on the future of the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant project will in all likelihood become white hot. Let us hope this will lead to a meltdown of that ill-conceived project.

It is regrettable that during the past decade or more, the KMT has led Taiwan down the nuclear power path, while most other advanced nations around the world have reduced their dependence on nuclear power or even started to close down aging power plants.

One example is the Netherlands, which is about the same size as Taiwan, and also has a booming economy. It will close its last nuclear power plant between 2004 and 2007, and has dramatically shifted towards sustainable energy. In addition, it has emphasized energy efficiency and energy conservation, resulting in a reduction of total energy needs by about 20 percent, while maintaining strong growth in its economy. Taiwan can also do that: the new DPP government is in an excellent position to lead Taiwan into a new era of reduced dependence on nuclear power, and increased reliance on clean energy resources. Here are just some ideas:

We need to institute an aggressive energy conservation program. Presently, much energy is wasted through inefficiencies and the lack of energy-conservation awareness among the population. A simple thing like turning off the lights in a room when no one is in it is important. We need to teach ourselves and our children that energy conservation starts with one's own individual behavior.

We need to initiate a program to utilize alternative energy sources such as solar, wind, and energy-efficient technologies such as fuel cells.

In the US, President Clinton has started a so-called Million Solar Roof program, which aims to install solar panels on the roofs of a million homes throughout the US. With the abundance of sunshine in Taiwan, this could be a major source of energy. It is particularly attractive because it generates electricity in the day, a time when energy consumption in Taiwan peaks, due to use of air conditioning systems.

Along the coast, Taiwan has strong winds, which would be able to sustain many modern windmills of the type one sees in countries like Denmark and the Netherlands -- world leaders in the generation of wind energy. Those countries would surely be more than happy to share this technology, and to assist in the installation of windmills along Taiwan's coast.

Fuel cells are another new technology, which can radically reduce energy use. Instead of generating electricity through burning gas or oil -- which is done in conventional power plants -- fuel cell plants generate it through a chemical process with nearly twice the efficiency of the conventional combustion process. The same amount of gas or oil thus generates twice the electricity.

An added advantage of these new technologies is that electricity can be generated in several separate locations, not in one central location. This makes electricity generation less vulnerable to breakdown due to failure of one central plant, which might, for instance, be targeted by Chinese missiles. Distributed power will thus increase the reliability of the electricity system as a whole.

It should be emphasized that alternative energy sources are part of the picture. We need to continue to employ conventional power generating technology, but even there we can gradually shift to advanced technologies, such as clean coal and advanced turbines. Many of these technologies are already available and applied in the US and Western Europe.

Taiwan certainly can turn this vision of clean and renewable energy into a new reality. Let's make it work.

Chen Mei-chin is the editor of Taiwan Communique.
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