Nvidia chief executive officer Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) in a speech on May 24 said that “Taiwan should definitely invest in nuclear energy.”
A few days earlier, on May 20, a referendum proposal backed by Taiwan’s opposition parties, the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Taiwan People’s Party, on restarting the No. 2 reactor, only decommissioned on May 17, of the Ma-anshan Nuclear Power Plant in Pingtung County, was passed.
What Huang said exactly was, in fact: “Taiwan should definitely invest in nuclear energy. Energy should not be stigmatized. We need all forms of energy, including wind, solar and nuclear.”
That means, renewable energy and nuclear energy are both options for the power-hungry artificial intelligence (AI) sector.
However, the KMT uses Europe and the US as examples to advocate that Taiwan should keep up with the “world trend of reducing carbon, but not nuclear energy.”
Such a comparison ignores the fact that Taiwan is in the Pacific Rim seismic belt, and the Ma-anshan Nuclear Power Plant was built on the Hengchun fault, making the plant significantly riskier than nuclear power plants in Europe and the US.
Japan, which is also in the seismic belt, promulgated new nuclear safety standards after the disaster at the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant in 2011, regulating that any nuclear power plant built on an active fault is not allowed to operate.
On Aug. 28 last year the Japanese Nuclear Regulation Authority ruled that Tsuruga 2, the second reactor of the Tsuruga nuclear power plant, falls short of the new safety standards and cannot resume operations on due to the risks of an active fault below the reactor.
In addition, International Energy Agency data show that the cost of extending the service life of a nuclear power plant is as high as US$500 to US$1,100 per kilowatt-hour, and it continues to rise.
Investment in renewable energy worldwide reached US$728 billion last year, which is about 10 times that of nuclear energy.
Technological advances have reduced the cost of solar photovoltaics by more than 30 percent in the past two years, while nuclear power has gradually lost its economic competitiveness due to high construction costs, long construction periods and high risks.
Huang’s speech highlights the AI industry’s demand for energy. To achieve its goal of utilizing 100 percent renewable energy by this year, it is estimated that Nvidia’s annual green electricity demand in Taiwan would exceed 10 billion kilowatt-hours, close to one-third of Taiwan’s total green electricity generation last year.
Nvidia has established a huge supply chain in Taiwan and therefore has significant bargaining power to negotiate with the government about renewable energy policies other than nuclear power investment.
Google pushed the government to revise the Electricity Act (電業法) in 2017 to allow companies to directly purchase renewable energy, laying an important foundation for the liberalization of the green electricity market.
Since Google can do it, there is no reason why Nvidia — given its global scale and influence — cannot get its supply chain to use 100 percent renewable energy by 2030, creating a win-win situation for Taiwan’s industry and energy transformation.
Lena Chang is a Taipei-based climate and energy campaigner at Greenpeace East Asia.
Translated by Lin Lee-kai
Speaking at the Copenhagen Democracy Summit on May 13, former president Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) said that democracies must remain united and that “Taiwan’s security is essential to regional stability and to defending democratic values amid mounting authoritarianism.” Earlier that day, Tsai had met with a group of Danish parliamentarians led by Danish Parliament Speaker Pia Kjaersgaard, who has visited Taiwan many times, most recently in November last year, when she met with President William Lai (賴清德) at the Presidential Office. Kjaersgaard had told Lai: “I can assure you that ... you can count on us. You can count on our support
Denmark has consistently defended Greenland in light of US President Donald Trump’s interests and has provided unwavering support to Ukraine during its war with Russia. Denmark can be proud of its clear support for peoples’ democratic right to determine their own future. However, this democratic ideal completely falls apart when it comes to Taiwan — and it raises important questions about Denmark’s commitment to supporting democracies. Taiwan lives under daily military threats from China, which seeks to take over Taiwan, by force if necessary — an annexation that only a very small minority in Taiwan supports. Denmark has given China a
Many local news media over the past week have reported on Internet personality Holger Chen’s (陳之漢) first visit to China between Tuesday last week and yesterday, as remarks he made during a live stream have sparked wide discussions and strong criticism across the Taiwan Strait. Chen, better known as Kuan Chang (館長), is a former gang member turned fitness celebrity and businessman. He is known for his live streams, which are full of foul-mouthed and hypermasculine commentary. He had previously spoken out against the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and criticized Taiwanese who “enjoy the freedom in Taiwan, but want China’s money”
A high-school student surnamed Yang (楊) gained admissions to several prestigious medical schools recently. However, when Yang shared his “learning portfolio” on social media, he was caught exaggerating and even falsifying content, and his admissions were revoked. Now he has to take the “advanced subjects test” scheduled for next month. With his outstanding performance in the general scholastic ability test (GSAT), Yang successfully gained admissions to five prestigious medical schools. However, his university dreams have now been frustrated by the “flaws” in his learning portfolio. This is a wake-up call not only for students, but also teachers. Yang did make a big
RSS