Page 4 - AsiaElec Week 05 2023

AsiaElec COMMENTARY AsiaElec

Taiwan power policy confused as

outgoing president sticks to guns

Taiwanese energy security a mix of stubborn adherence to old campaign promises
and an underperforming renewables sector

TAIWAN WHEN Taiwan’s ruling Democratic Progressive It is, though, a goal largely out of reach with-
Party (DPP) came to power in early 2016, it did out a significant change in domestic energy pol-
WHAT: so having in part campaigned on a no-nuclear icy and concerted moves away from coal and gas
Taiwan’s confused policy. dependency.
approach to energy A law soon followed promising that nuclear At present, of the five coal power plants con-
security power plants (NPPs) then operational or under structed while the DPP has been in power, none
construction would be shuttered by 2025, a year have state-of-the-art carbon capture and storage
WHY: after the current president’s tenure ends in 2024. (CCS) capabilities built in, or even planned as
Outgoing president But with little in the way of its own natural later add-ons; not a good state of affairs for one
sticking to no-nuclear resources, and almost all coal and gas imported, of the world’s leading polluters, despite being
campaign promises the island nation remains heavily dependent on home to just 0.3% of the global population.
its access to sea routes to bring in fossil fuels to
WHAT NEXT: power its cities. Referendum ignored
Clarity and nuclear- Renewables policies, much lauded by the Current policy dictates that coal-generated capac-
inclusive policy needed, DPP in the past seven years, have already seen ity will make up 30% of the total energy mix in 2025,
but unlikely promises of wind and solar generation capacity a decrease of over 15% from today’s 47% of the total.
of 20% of the total by 2025 adjusted downwards How this will be achieved in unclear. Power cuts
to 15% in the same timeframe, with few in the LNG too faces difficult times ahead, with cost-ef-
industry seeing even this as realistic. fective cargoes hard to come by when sandwiched have become
Recent figures on renewables output indicate between Japan and China as the world’s top two gas an increasingly
a range of between 4% and 6% output from solar importers.
and wind capacity – combined – at best. Yet current DPP goals have LNG-powered capacity common part of
As a result, once the last of its NPPs are offi- responsible for 50% of output in 2025; up from just 37%
cially put into hibernation, there is little on the today. life across large
horizon to indicate that energy security for Tai- Even with the ideal energy mix in place, Tai-
wan is a feasible reality any time soon. wan’s energy woes then extend to its ageing grid parts of Taiwan in
For many of the island of 23mn people long infrastructure. recent years.
coveted by neighbouring China, the only real- Power cuts have become an increasingly common
istic way to help Taiwan retain a modicum of part of life across large parts of Taiwan in recent years.
energy security is to maintain its nuclear power Statements following some of the more wide-
capabilities as a counterbalance to one day los- spread or lengthy outages affecting the heavily popu-
ing access to imports by sea of coal, LNG and oil. lated northern part of the main island have attributed

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