Taipei, Aug. 12 (CNA) Taiwan should not phase out nuclear energy, which is essential to the nation’s bid to boost the share of renewable energy in its energy mix and achieve carbon neutrality by 2050, Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) Chairman Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) said Saturday.
The ruling Democratic Progressive Party has turned a blind eye to the global trend of moving toward net zero emissions and is instead clinging onto natural gas, itself a fossil fuel, which now makes up 50 percent of Taiwan’s energy mix, Ko, the TPP’s presidential candidate, said in a social media post.
This problem can be remedied by greatly boosting the percentage of renewables in Taiwan’s energy mix and pushing back the timeline to phase out nuclear energy, Ko said.
He recommended “extending the service life” of the Ma-anshan Nuclear Power Plant in Pingtung, which is set to be fully decommissioned in May 2025, and that of the Kuosheng Nuclear Power Plant in New Taipei’s Wanli District, even though the plant was decommissioned in March.
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In addition, he called for security concerns surrounding the shuttered Fourth Nuclear Power Plant in New Taipei’s Gongliao District to be addressed as soon as possible.
Following the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster, the Cabinet in the same year ordered a safety inspection of the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant. The Ministry of Economic Affairs in July 2014 announced that the safety inspection report deemed the nuclear power plant to be “safe.”
However, the Atomic Energy Council (AEC) in August that year cited 23 “inconclusive” items and nine items that still pending the submission of follow-up information by the state-run utility Taiwan Power Co.
The issues prevented the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant from receiving a the permit for the use of fuel rods and led the AEC to declare the plant had failed to meet safety standards on numerous occasions over the years.
In April 2014, then-Premier Jiang Yi-huah (江宜樺) ordered that the plant be shuttered amid strong public opposition to its construction.
In 2021, a public plebiscite asked voters whether they agreed that the nuclear power plant should be unsealed and re-launched. It failed to pass after 3.8 million voters voted for and 4.26 million voted against the proposal.
At the same time, Ko said he would push policies to quintuple the number of electric vehicles and charging stations in Taiwan and to install “smart” power grids around the nation to facilitate electricity storage and boost energy efficiency.
Ko recently proposed a goal to increase the share of renewable energy from the current level of 8-9 percent to 40 percent by 2030, but has yet to propose a detailed energy mix.
Achieving carbon neutrality by 2050 is a global trend, and many businesses have joined the RE100 initiative to achieve 100 percent renewables, Ko said.
According to Ko, many Taiwanese businesses hope to jump on the bandwagon and have been trying to purchase renewable energy, only to be told that there is none available.
This highlights Taiwan’s continual shortage of renewable energy production, which has left many companies at a disadvantage, the former Taipei mayor said.
This has not only led to a large volume of carbon emissions but also poses a risk to the nation’s energy supply due to fluctuating international energy prices, Ko said.
Meanwhile, New Taipei Mayor Hou Yu-ih (侯友宜), the Kuomintang presidential candidate, has neglected the growing demand for “green” energy from businesses, and did not addressed the issues of “green” power grids or electricity storage in his recently published energy platform, Ko said.
“Times have changed. Stop fixating on dogmatic views when it comes to energy policy and try to keep up with the international trend,” Ko said.
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