Taiwan's Transition Away From Nuclear Energy
What does the decommissioning of nuclear reactors mean for Taiwan's energy future? TaiwanPlus talks to Executive Director of The International Climate Development Institute, Chao Kung-yueh to find out.
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00:00How significant is this decommission for Taiwan's nuclear energy, and how is it going to affect Taiwan's energy supply?
00:06Yes, I think
00:08for the nuclear power plant decommission would be little impact
00:14for the whole energy supply. The energy from nuclear power probably just occupy
00:215% and also for last year, the whole year, would be like 6 or
00:27to maybe 8%, so less than 10%. So for that part, if for the nuclear power plant
00:36shutdown and decommission would be little impact, I think the priority would be more focus on
00:43the renewable energy
00:46to be grow up.
00:48Can you tell us more about the debate around nuclear power in Taiwan?
00:52For the past few years, some people worry about the energy transition process and
00:59and also implementation
01:02for the
01:04Taiwan net-zero pathway, and surely we know for the net-zero pathway, we have to focus on the
01:11low carbon emission and also the low carbon
01:16power supply. So
01:18nuclear power surely is one of the choice. So
01:22some people worry about if we shut down the nuclear power, that would be a huge impact.
01:28But I think for the current situation in the whole world,
01:33surely some people argue that the nuclear power is one of the clean power, but also clean energy.
01:40But also I think
01:43majority, I mean
01:44more focus on renewable energy.
01:47Taiwan's government has missed this renewable energy target and it's not on track to reach 20% by 2025. In your opinion,
01:55how do you think Taiwan should prioritize its energy with an increase in energy demand?
02:00We have to more focus on how to increase the supply for renewable energy because for the
02:09majority about
02:10the world trend also
02:13for the ICT supply chain in RE100, that would be more focused on renewable energy supply.
02:21And also surely another part is I haven't seen
02:25actually, if we increase in the renewable energy supply, the micro
02:30smart grid and also storage would be more investment in this side, but I haven't seen the major
02:38investment in Taiwan.
02:40So I think maybe not focus on the nuclear power plan,
02:46criticize or
02:48debate, maybe more focus on the storage and also the smart grid would be the current priority.