Author: Mu-Xing Lin, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, RSPRC

Civil Defense of Energy

During the course of the Russia–Ukraine war, which began in 2022, Russia has bombed Ukraine with missiles, destroying Ukraine's electric power infrastructure and causing widespread blackouts in various regions, affecting winter heating supplies, and possibly causing residents to flee or freeze to death. According to reports from Independent (2022) and BBC (2022), Ukrainian officials described Russia's wartime actions as energy genocide. In 2023, an earthquake in Turkey and Syria not only collapsed buildings but also caused blackouts. Some local nonprofit organizations are predicted to provide electricity to shelters using rooftop solar power. Regardless of whether the disaster is man-made or natural, residents need to use self-generated renewable energy systems to independently mitigate or adapt to the dangers of electric power outages caused by disasters. In Taiwan, although densely populated areas are not primarily located in cold weather conditions, residents still need emergency shelter and electricity during natural or man-made disasters. The decentralized deployment of renewable energy can reduce the negative impacts of such disasters, and Taiwan can also develop citizen power plants that democratize the use of renewable energy.

Energy Democratization

In March and at the end of 2022, Taiwan announced the "Taiwan's Pathway to Net-Zero Emissions in 2050" and its "12 Key Strategic Action Plans," respectively, which included action plans for solar power and wind power. In addition to emphasizing the key strategic importance of solar power, the Environmental Protection Administration (2022) also collaborated with the Green Advocates Energy Cooperative to install solar power on the roof of the Environmental Protection Administration's building and announced an expansion in public participation in solar power generation⁷. However, the key strategy ignores the issue of community power plants and focuses on technology research and development while neglecting public participation. After "the Conference of Communication for the Energy System Decarbonization Society of 2050 Net Zero Transition," the Bureau of Energy (2022) indicated that some advanced discussions mentioned the need to increase public participation in renewable energy deployment, such as citizen power plants³. In fact, the public can not only participate in solar power deployment, but there are also cases in Europe where citizens have invested in wind power development projects, as mentioned by Lissen and Su (2019)⁶. Additionally, a special report by United Daily News (2021) also indicated the unfriendly aspects of citizen power plant-related projects, as well as the problem of the government and enterprises focusing on large projects instead of small ones⁸. Wu (2022) also mentioned the importance of direct community participation in community power plants to reduce development conflicts, and emphasized the importance of school and local residents' participation².

Energy Laws and Policies Regarding Citizen Power Plants Need to be Followed Up

The Executive Yuan issued the Guidelines on Energy Development in 2017, and the Bureau of Energy launched the Promotion Program for People's Participation in Green Energy Roof in the same year. The results of this program need to be examined in terms of the number of citizen participants, number of participating rooftops, and amount of electricity generated during the period. In 2018, the Bureau of Energy, in collaboration with civil society, developed the Energy Transition White Paper (Draft), which includes the Citizen Power Plant Promotion Program. Subsequently, the Execution Reports of Energy Transition White Paper for 2020 and 2021 were submitted (Tables 1 and 2). The major highlights of the 2020 report include the Establishment of the Citizen Power Plant Information Platform and the Incentive Subsidy Mechanism for Citizen Power Plants, while the major highlights of the 2021 report include the Establishment of One-stop Window for the Citizen Power Plant Information Platform and the Inventory of Targeted Amounts for Incentive Subsidies for Citizen Power Plant Projects. Notably, the Citizen Power Plant Information Platform mainly provides convenience measures for application to establish citizen power plants, but it lacks relevant statistical data.

Lack of Legal Definitions and Statistics on Citizen Power Plants

Taiwan amended the Electricity Act in 2017 to open up the possibility of citizen power plants, but it lacks a clear definition of citizen power plants. The Bureau of Energy has successively announced the Operational Guidelines for Subsidizing Civil Society Groups to Establish Green Energy Power Generation Equipment in Remote Areas and the Operational Guidelines for Indigenous Participation in the Installation of Renewable Energy since 2018. First, it developed citizen power plants through demonstration incentives. Subsequently, through the Renewable Energy Development Act (2019 Amendment), citizen power plants were incorporated into the law, or legalized as related regulations, such as the Demonstration Incentive Regulation for Cooperatives and Communities to Participate in Citizen Power Plant Installation (2020). However, except for the definition of citizen power plants in the Executive Yuan(2020)'s Energy Transition White Paper ^[1], the law does not clearly define citizen power plants, and there is a lack of relevant statistical information¹.

Taiwan's Citizen Power Plant Information Disclosure and Installation Goals

Hsu (2020) has developed the Taiwan Citizen Power Plant Map at the Risk Society and Policy Research Center, National Taiwan University, which includes statistics on the Green Advocates Energy Cooperative, Sunny Founder, and has gradually added information on new locations, such as the New Taipei City Folks Energy Learning Community Cooperative, New Taipei City Smart Green Energy Cooperative, and Hello Solarman⁴. Contrastingly, in Germany, Huang (2022) cites statistics on renewable energy ownership, including categories, such as farmers, small and medium-sized enterprises, and regional producers⁵. Furthermore, the statistical categories for citizen power plants in Taiwan need to include cooperatives, social enterprises, management committees for the administration of condominiums, and other community organizations or categories. When certifying renewable energy equipment or purchasing electricity from Taipower, relevant information on citizen power plants should be noted. This will facilitate cross-departmental and cross-divisional statistics on citizen power plants using methods of information science and scientific assessment, serving as the basis for policy making related to citizen power plants.

Key Indicators of Energy Transition should Include Statistics on Citizen Power Plants

The Key Indicators of Energy Transition released by the Bureau of Energy in 2022 do not include statistics on citizen power plants, thus, overlooking the important path or tool for public participation in the net-zero transition or energy transition. Since statistics on citizen power plants represent the information infrastructure of energy transition, including the legal definition, scientific statistics, and data analysis on citizen power plants, it is recommended that the National Council on Sustainable Development, National Development Council, Bureau of Energy, and Ministry of Digital Affairs pay attention to public participation in net-zero transition and citizen power plants, and establish geographic and power generation data, such as on power plant locations, power plant sizes, energy categories, power generation in specific periods, and number of participating citizens. Citizen power plant data involve not only publicizing energy autonomy, but also civil defense of energy security. Publicizing and updating statistics on citizen power plants also facilitates the participation of various parties during scientific evaluation and policy making related to citizen power plants. Additionally, it enables the expansion of citizen power plants and the democratization of renewable energy, such as stimulating citizens' share ownership or bond issuance in renewable energy development plans.

Table 1 Citizen Power Plants and Taiwan's Energy Laws

Source of information: Compiled by the author.

Table 2 Citizen Power Plants and Taiwan's Energy Policies

Acknowledgement

I thank Associate Professor Ling-Ching Fu for organizing the forum "Power Used by NCCU, Power Generated by NCCU: The Present, Future, and Legal Reform of Citizen Power Plants" in December 2022, and for facilitating the publication of the March 2023 issue of the New Horizon of Great Transformation Newsletter with topic of the People Can Do for Energy Transition by the Risk Society and Policy Research Center, National Taiwan University.