Venue: International Conference Hall, Tsai Lecture Hall(霖澤館), College of Law, National Taiwan University (1^st Floor)

Date: 12^th November, 2019

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The Risk Society and Policy Research Center (RSPRC) launched our flagship report this month (November 2019), ‘Taiwan in Transformation: Initiating a Long-Term Energy Transition', to provide recommendations on the long-term strategies that Taiwan needs to undertake for its long-term energy transition. To launch the report, a media conference and forum was held on 11 November 2019 to introduce the report.

This is the fifth part of a five-part article which compiles the summary of the event.

Special Lecture 2: Launching Taiwan's Energy Transition – Using Green Energy as the Main Driver by Minister Ming-hsin Kung

 

 

Executive Yuan Minister Ming-hsin Kung gave the second special lecture at the forum, and provided a background of the government's efforts in renewable energy development. He highlighted that Taiwan currently imports more than 98% of its energy needs, with crude oil, coal and natural gas making up the bulk of the imports. In addition, the issue of reducing fossil fuels from Taiwan's energy mix is an important one because of two issues: environmental protection and energy security.

Minister Kung explained that in his role overseeing energy issues in Taiwan, three targets were set: to achieve a nuclear-free homeland, reduce air pollution and to prevent energy shortages. Taiwan has also set a target to achieve 20% renewable energy in its energy mix by 2025, and to reduce nuclear energy to zero.

Minister Kung also painted the overall picture of Taiwan's energy development in three broad strategies:

1. Strengthen Taiwan's energy security, improve energy autonomy and promote energy diversity
2. Adopt green innovation for economic growth, by increasing domestic energy demand in order to increase employment, and to spread Taiwan's innovation to the international stage
3. Promote environmental sustainability and conservation, and focus on energy saving and carbon emission reduction

 

In addition, Minister Kung shared that the government's current focus on renewable energy is on wind and solar energy development, with a goal of 6.9GW for wind energy (1.2GW onshore and 5.7GW offshore) and 20GW for solar energy. The goal of increasing natural gas generation would also require an increase in the number of these installations. In addition, the government is aiming to increase the natural gas storage capacity from 15 days currently to 24 days by 2027, and to increase the natural gas safety stock inventory from 7 days currently to 14 days by 2027. There are also no plans to build additional coal-fired power plants until 2025. In order to reduce coal-fired power, the government has also installed and renewed pollution control equipment, enhanced the management of pollution sources by making coal-fired power plants less polluting, as well as initiate load reduction during periods of poor air quality. Also, existing nuclear plants are in the process of being decommissioned and will not be reopened or put in operations, and the current plan is to let them take their course towards expiry in order to achieve a nuclear-free homeland.

Minister Kung also pointed out that Taiwan has already achieved its 2018 renewable energy targets and is moving towards achieving its 2020 targets, and the government has adopted three broad strategies to do so:

1. Set a target on the proportion of companies within the industrial parks which should install renewable energy on their rooftops, and for companies to seek out alternative venues for installation if rooftops spaces are not available
2. Open up experimental sites to set up demonstration projects for renewable energy, such as on agricultural land and fishing areas
3. Promote greater integration between the central and local governments in renewable energy development, with the central government providing funding and local government supporting with local expertise and manpower

 

In terms of wind energy, the government has developed three phases of development in order to achieve the target of 6.9GW generation of wind energy generation by 2025, with targets set for 2018, 2020 and 2025. Minister Kung also updated that the Formosa 1 offshore wind farm in Miaoli was inaugurated on the morning of the forum, and that it would be able to generate 128MW of energy for 128,000 households, or half the households in Miaoli. In addition, President Tsai Ing-wen also said at the inauguration that she has asked the Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA) to develop further plans for renewable energy for the next 10 years to 2035, to which MOEA has reported that it plans to add another 10GW of renewable energy from 2025 to 2035. In addition, because the generation of wind energy in Taiwan is weaker during summer when there are slower wind speeds, and the generation of solar energy is weaker during winter days, grid energy storage is therefore necessary.

Minister Kung also pointed out that energy stability is an important aspect of energy transition, and that Taiwan has not faced any issues on this in 2018 and 2019. However, on electricity prices, Minister Kung pointed out that he would not be able to dictate price increases but said that price increases would not exceed the maximum limit of 3% allowable for the increases. He added that as the cost of renewable energy will keep declining, he is optimistic that electricity prices would be maintained at its current level. Finally, Minister Kung said that the government aims to reduce air pollution emissions from the power system by 45%, from 145,000 tons in 2017 to 80,000 tons in 2025. In addition, with technologies advances in renewable energy, the 2025 electricity emission factor is estimated to fall by 26% compared to 2016.

In conclusion, Minister Kung explained that Taiwan's energy transition has been focused on a strategy of renewable energy and natural gas expansion, coal reduction and the goal of a nuclear-free homeland, which would enable Taiwan to achieve its multiple objectives of stable power supply and electricity prices, as well as low carbon and low air pollution emissions. He pointed out that based on Taiwan's current renewable energy development pathway, the government is confident of achieving its 20% renewable target by 2025.

Panel Discussion

 

 

In the panel discussion that followed, Minister Kung further shared that one of the government's energy transition strategy pertains to energy conservation, and as such the Bureau of Energy has set aside funding to conduct awareness campaigns on energy conservation, as well as to support households in adopting energy conservation. In addition, new building regulations will be developed to boost energy efficiency, starting with public buildings. He added that the government would also welcome suggestions to strengthen energy conservation. Minister Kung added that in terms of electricity prices, global changes will be the main determinant of local electricity prices, and with the global trend of renewable energy prices declining, he expects that there would not be a need for local price increases.

 

 

However, RSPRC Postdoctoral Fellow Chia-Wei Chao explained that based on current international trends, electricity prices are still expected to increase, especially because of the need to include the external costs of electricity generation into electricity prices.

 

 

Minister Kung added that there are no current plans to construct new natural gas plants and that if MOEA were to propose the construction of new natural gas plants, he would not agree to it as long as he is in the position of minister overseeing energy issues. He also shared that President Tsai has focused on the need for industrial transformation and for Taiwan to become an advanced manufacturing hub, and thus companies and suppliers have been required to focus on energy conservation and renewable energy. However, where conflicts have arisen over the construction of renewable energy such as over some wetlands in Taiwan, construction has been postponed, and the government will focus on renewable energy development in places where public consensus has already been reached. Nonetheless, better communication will enable consensus to be more easily achieved, Minister Kung added. He also agreed that a systemic approach to developing renewable energy is necessary, and also pointed out that relations between Taiwan and the United Kingdom (UK) have been improving due to more frequent cooperation in renewable energy and industrial development.

 

 

Prof. Chien-Ming Lee from the Institute of Natural Resources Management at the National Taipei University (NTU) next pointed out that while discussion on climate change and global warming has been ongoing, carbon emissions have continued to increase and there is still a lack of public involvement in tackling climate change. He pointed out that in order for public action to occur, people need to be provided with information and examples of successful climate action in order to motivate them to take action. In addition, individual climate action should be easy to implement if the public is to be motivated to be involved, and thus low-carbon labels on products are one way to not only raise awareness among the public on low-carbon products, but to encourage more conversation around them. By targeting the end users of products, it would then be possible to get end users to push manufacturers to produce more low-carbon products, especially since manufacturers would be more likely to produce low-carbon products if these would be the products consumers would go for. Reaching out to the end users would therefore be a more effective method than trying to directly convince companies to develop low-carbon products. To this, end, he said that he is working with NTU's Family Mart convenience stores to conduct experiments based on this concept.

 

 

On the RSPRC's flagship report on the long-term energy transition for Taiwan, Green Citizens' Action Alliance Chairman Wei-Chieh Lai said that it is an important white paper on Taiwan's energy transition, but he added that the involvement of labor unions is necessary as well. He pointed out that while labor unions traditionally advocated on issues of wages and time off, they should also be engaged on energy transition and climate change issues. For example, when trucker unions in Europe advocated that truckers should only need to make short trips so that they would be able to spend more time at home, with long trips made by trains instead, not only did this help reorganize thinking behind transportation and logistics management, but it also helped to reduce emissions, which Mr. Lai explained is an approach Taiwan's labor unions can adopt on energy transition.

 

 

Dr. Chao responded by saying that as part of the RSPRC's flagship report, energy justice is also an issue talked about, which advocates for worker participation in energy transition issues. In addition, Dr. Chao explained that while the RSPRC's ‘Taiwan in Transformation' report recommended the setting up of an independent committee on climate change, the difference between an independent committee and existing ones is that the RSPRC has also recommended the adoption of participatory governance innovation, such as by developing new dialogue mechanisms. For example, the New Taipei government had invited civil servants from various backgrounds to workshops where they brainstormed on the energy transition that Taiwan should undertake by 2050. Therefore, other than enhancing cross-departmental cooperation, the energy literacy of civil servants also needs to be improved as part of a holistic strategy.

 

 

Greenpeace Taiwan Energy Project Campaign Director Alynne Tsai added that energy transition should be commercialized, such as by using regulatory sandboxes for energy transition. Ms. Tsai explained that the approach that can be taken is not about providing incentives to motivate businesses to undergo energy transition, but rather that market mechanisms might be a more effective manner to do so. For example, the implementation of carbon pricing in Germany resulted in coal-fired power becoming more and more expensive, leading to businesses abandoning coal-fired power for renewable energy. As such, using market mechanisms to internalize external costs could lead to businesses making their own financial evaluations of whether to undergo energy transition.

 

 

Finally, panel moderator Prof. Kuei-Tien Chou, Lead Principal Investigator of the RSPRC, closed the forum by saying that in order for Taiwan to move into the next phase of development, social dialogue is required. Taiwan's current energy conversation is focused on whether nuclear energy should be developed or not, but it should go beyond this, to develop a vision of what Taiwan wants to achieve in the next 3 or 5 years. A bottom-up approach should also be taken where public pressure is put on the government, to quicken the pace of energy transition.

 

 

 

 

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Links to Other Sections:

Part 1: Media Conference: Launch of the Taiwan in Transformation Report

Part 2: Special Lecture 1: Taiwan in Transformation – Initiating a Long-Term Energy Transition

Part 3: Breakout Session 1: Innovation in Energy Governance

Part 4: Breakout Session 2: Implementation of the Industrial Energy Efficiency First Principle

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Special Lecture 2: Launching Taiwan's Energy Transition – Using Green Energy as the Main Driver by Minister Ming-hsin Kung

 

Panel Discussion

 

 

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