Hydroelectricity is the lowest-cost clean energy source that can be started up quickly, generating electricity as easily as turning on a tap. This is critical to the stability of the nation’s power system, especially when coupled with pumped-storage hydroelectricity.
The Dajia River (大甲溪) in central Taiwan is the nation’s only river with a series of reservoirs and hydropower plants, from upstream to downstream, making full use of the energy of flowing water to generate electricity.
The Dajia River Power Plant consists of five stations — at Taichung County’s Deji (德基), Cingshan (青山), Guguan (谷關), Tianlun (天輪) and Sintianlun (新天輪) reservoirs — with a total capacity of 1,010 megawatts, greater than the 951 megawatts of the Maanshan Nuclear Power Plant.
Unfortunately, there is no reservoir along the Daan River (大安溪), which is north of Dajia River, nor is there one along the Dadu River (大肚溪) in the south. The Jhuoshuei River (濁水溪), the longest in Taiwan, has only one reservoir, in Nantou County’s Wushe (霧社).
Neither the Laonong River (荖濃溪) nor the Cishan River (旗山溪) has a reservoir, meaning that the large amounts of water running through them year-round travels into the sea.
If a major river can produce as much electricity as a nuclear power plant, it is possible for Taiwan to develop another 10 gigawatts of capacity, with cheap green electricity. If this were coupled with pumped-storage hydroelectricity, the problem of energy storage with urgent demand could be solved.
The development of more reservoirs could simultaneously alleviate the nation’s water and electricity shortage issues, but reservoir silt accumulation remains a concern. Thankfully, there is a solution to this: the now-mature technology of sediment-sluicing tunnels used in the Shimen (石門), Zengwen (曾文) and Nanhua (南化) reservoirs.
As there are no migratory fish in Taiwan’s rivers, reservoirs would have a minor ecological impact, and the freshwater lakes formed by the dams and their surroundings could become homes to rich ecologies.
Taiwan’s reservoir construction technology is world-class, and government regulations require overall safety assessments of reservoirs every five years, so the their stability can be ensured.
In times of electricity and water shortages, and with the need to develop sustainable green energy sources, Taiwan should promote the construction of hydropower plants.
Lee Chyi-tyi is a researcher at National Central University’s Earthquake-Disaster and Risk Evaluation and Management Center.
Translated by Lin Lee-kai
China has successfully held its Forum on China-Africa Cooperation, with 53 of 55 countries from the African Union (AU) participating. The two countries that did not participate were Eswatini and the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic, which have no diplomatic relations with China. Twenty-four leaders were reported to have participated. Despite African countries complaining about summit fatigue, with recent summits held with Russia, Italy, South Korea, the US and Indonesia, as well as Japan next month, they still turned up in large numbers in Beijing. China’s ability to attract most of the African leaders to a summit demonstrates that it is still being
Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) Chairman Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) on Thursday was handcuffed and escorted by police to the Taipei Detention Center, after the Taipei District Court ordered that he be detained and held incommunicado for suspected corruption during his tenure as Taipei mayor. The ruling reversed an earlier decision by the same court on Monday last week that ordered Ko’s release without bail. That decision was appealed by prosecutors on Wednesday, leading the High Court to conclude that Ko had been “actively involved” in the alleged corruption and it ordered the district court to hold a second detention hearing. Video clips
The Russian city of Vladivostok lies approximately 45km from the Sino-Russian border on the Sea of Japan. The area was not always Russian territory: It was once the site of a Chinese settlement. The settlement would later be known as Yongmingcheng (永明城), the “city of eternal light,” during the Yuan Dynasty. That light was extinguished in 1858 when a large area of land was ceded by the Qing Dynasty to the Russian Empire with the signing of the Treaty of Aigun. The People’s Republic of China founded by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has never ruled Taiwan. Taiwan was governed by the
The Japanese-language Nikkei Shimbun on Friday published a full-page story calling for Japan’s Liberal Democratic Party’s (LDP) leadership hopefuls to be aware of and to prepare for a potential crisis in the Taiwan Strait. The candidates of the LDP leadership race must have a “vision” in case of a Chinese invasion in Taiwan, the article said, adding that whether the prospective president of the LDP and the future prime minister of Japan have the ability to lead the public and private sectors under this circumstance would be examined in the coming election. The “2027 Theory” of a Taiwan contingency is becoming increasingly
RSS