Premier Lin Chuan (林全) has rejected the possibility of restarting inactive nuclear reactors, despite the risk of further power shortages, while seeking to ease concern that a major semiconductor manufacturer would set up operations overseas due to unstable power supply in Taiwan.
In an interview with the Chinese-language Economic Daily News published yesterday, Lin said that state-run Taiwan Power Co (Taipower) had spent too much time seeking to extend the lifespan of the nation’s three active nuclear power plants and to activate a nuclear plant that has been mothballed.
“It is impossible. Do not expect it; just give it up,” Lin told Taipower, according to the report. “Just fill the power gap.”
Photo: CNA
Despite electricity operating reserves plummeting over the past few weeks, the nation’s power supply would be more stable from next year, as new, large generators go online, Lin said.
It is important for offshore wind power generation to help meet the goal of increasing sources of renewable energy to 20 percent of the nation’s output, Lin said, adding that this year is a key time for the transition to non-nuclear and “cleaner” energy.
The combined capacity of the nation’s offshore wind farms is expected to be 4 gigawatts by 2024, twice the capacity of the Ma-anshan Nuclear Power Plant in Pingtung County, Lin said.
It takes five to six years to develop offshore wind power and the first demonstration wind farm would not start operations until the end of 2020, but once offshore wind power is successfully developed, it should be a large source of energy, Lin said.
The largest wind power companies in the world are setting up operations in Taiwan because they know “the government is serious” about offshore wind power, Lin said.
Executive Yuan spokesman Hsu Kuo-yung (徐國勇) also said there is no plan to restart idle nuclear reactors.
Comparing nuclear power to extracorporeal membrane oxygenation, an emergency cardiac and respiratory support technique, Hsu said the current power supply problem, though urgent, would not require reactors to be restarted.
Meanwhile, in response to reports that the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC), the world’s largest IC foundry service provider, is considering overseas locations for its cutting-edge 3 nanometer chip factory due to unstable power supply in Taiwan, Lin told the newspaper that “it is a matter of course that TSMC would set up a 3 nanometer process plant in Taiwan.”
The Tainan and Kaohsiung city governments have been courting TSMC over investment for plants and the problem remains where in Taiwan the firm will set up, he said.
The government has sought to eliminate investment uncertainties, including via a landmark measure announced last year to streamline environmental reviews to shorten the process of investment assessment, the report quoted Lin as saying.
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