The government should consider the impact of offshore wind farms on shipping, fisheries and marine life before allowing energy developers to build more installations, Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) lawmakers and experts said on Wednesday.
The government plans to phase out all nuclear power generation facilities and generate 20 percent of electricity from renewable energy sources by 2025, including 5.7 gigawatts (GW) from offshore wind power. From 2026 to 2035, it plans to source an additional 15GW from offshore wind farms.
Before the government releases new guidelines for phase 3 offshore wind farm development and waterway plans near target farms, it should first review the results of the previous two stages, as only 7.5 percent of the 2025 goal (5.7GW) has been achieved, TPP Legislator Tsai Pi-ru (蔡壁如) told an online news conference.
The phase 3 rules are expected to demarcate “red zones” that prohibit offshore wind farm construction, following controversies about the potential effects of wind farms on fisheries, shipping lanes and marine ecology.
Many controversial issues were discussed only after energy developers had received approvals from the Environmental Protection Administration, TPP caucus whip Chiu Chen-yuan (邱臣遠) said, likening it “to shooting an arrow first before drawing a target.”
The government should look into the needs and activities of shippers, the coast guard, navy and fishers before approving more power projects, he said.
The government’s energy policy is obviously decoupled from its national land planning act, National Taiwan Ocean University emeritus professor Chiau Wen-yan (邱文彥) said.
Chiau, a former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmaker, in 2015 proposed a draft bill on the management of territorial waters within 12 nautical miles (22.2km). The bill passed a preliminary review by the legislature’s Internal Administration Committee that year, but has not progressed further.
Chiau said he supports offshore wind farm development, but questions whether it is good to install so many wind turbines in the Taiwan Strait.
Instead of hastening to meet its 2025 energy target, it should slow down and re-evaluate its overall marine territory plans by taking into account different activities in its waters, he said.
Matsu Fish Conservation Union chairman Robin Winkler said that endangered Taiwanese humpback dolphins live in waters 2 to 3 nautical miles (3.7km to 5.6km) off the coast and their habitats might be endangered by offshore wind turbine installations.
A more thorough discussion of offshore development projects is needed, he said.
Last year, only 5.8 percent of the nation’s electricity came from renewable energy sources, while 40.8 percent was from gas-fired units, 36.4 percent from coal-fired sources, 12.7 percent from nuclear energy and the rest from other sources, data on Taiwan Power Co’s Web site shows.
Officials from the Bureau of Energy and the Maritime and Port Bureau who attended the news conference said they would further discuss the demarcation of shipping lanes and how to avoid damaging the habitats of dolphins.
STRONG RELATIONSHIPS: China would not blockade Taiwan, because President Xi respects him, and Russia would not have invaded if he were president, he said Former US president and the Republican candidate in next month’s presidential election Donald Trump said he would impose additional tariffs on China if China were to “go into Taiwan,” the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported. “I would say: If you go into Taiwan, I’m sorry to do this, I’m going to tax you, at 150 percent to 200 percent,” Trump was quoted as saying in an interview with the WSJ published on Friday. Asked if he would use military force against a blockade on Taiwan by China, Trump said it would not come to that because Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) respected
The Taipei Department of Transportation discouraged YouBike 2.0E users from taking them on long-distance trips after a Taipei city councilor said that riders often use the new electric bike, YouBike 2.0E, to climb Yangmingshan (陽明山). Taipei earlier this year began offering the first 30 minutes of YouBike 2.0 rentals for free, with Taipei and New Taipei offering the YouBike 2.0E on Aug. 30 to encourage rider usage. For YouBike 2.0, the rate is NT$10 per 30 minutes within the first four hours, NT$20 per 30 minutes for five to eight hours and NT$40 per 30 minutes after eight hours. Meanwhile, for e-bikes,
RESOURCE RICH: Taiwan is located in the Pacific Ring of Fire and has up to 30 gigawatts of the potential energy, of which 10 gigawatts could be economically viable Academia Sinica and CPC Corp yesterday began drilling the nation’s first deep geothermal well in Yilan County’s Yuanshan Township (員山). The 4km-deep well is expected to take 18 months to complete and has an estimated investment of NT$337 million (US$10.54 million), Academia Sinica President James Liao (廖俊智) said. “While Taiwan has up to 30 gigawatts of potential deep geothermal energy, with an estimated 10 gigawatts being economically viable, only by digging wells can we determine the actual amount of commercially viable geothermal energy,” Liao said at the project’s opening ceremony. Data collected during and after the excavation process would be used for future
HACKERS’ MARKET: Chat logs about Taiwan and documents outlining ways to take over online accounts were leaked from a company that sells data from hacks Taiwanese cybersecurity specialists found 577 leaked documents which show that the Chinese Communist Party is engaging in “cognitive warfare” against Taiwan through cyberattacks and disinformation campaigns, a documentary released last month by Japanese public broadcaster NHK showed. The filmmakers behind Tracking China’s Leaked Documents said they spent six months visiting seven countries, including Taiwan, where they interviewed members of TeamT5, a malware research and cybersecurity firm, which found the leaked documents. TeamT5 said they discovered a string of mysterious URLs on the social media platform X, which they suspected could be accounts created by hackers or people who leaked data, which led