Economics Minister: “2025 Nuclear-free and Coal-free Homeland” Agenda Impossible

Economics Minister: “2025 Nuclear-free and Coal-free Homeland” Agenda Impossible

Source: United Daily News

March 2, 2016

President-elect Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) has said that “I do not think the per unit cost of electricity will rise sharply within the next ten years.” In response, Economics Minister Deng Chen-chung (鄧振中) stated that Tsai’s proposal to generate 50 billion kilowatt hours of green electricity in ten years would be very difficult to achieve. Moreover, Deng opined that the “2025 Nuclear-free and Coal-free Homeland” agenda was impossible.

Deng pointed out that it was dubious whether renewable energy technologies could fill the gap left after decommissioning all of the nuclear power plants in Taiwan.

Deng said that now, for general users, the cost of electricity was NT$2.8 per kilowatt hour while the cost of green energy was over NT$4 per kilowatt hour, arguing that whether the cost could be reduced would depend on technological progress. According to Deng, the ideal renewable energy portfolio standard would be to develop renewable energy on the one hand, and promote a smart energy savers program on the other before deciding on how to deal with nuclear power.

The“2025 Nuclear-free and Coal-free Homeland” agenda was impossible, Deng said, because coal-fired power plants accounted for 50% to 60% of the island’s total energy generation. Currently, Taiwan Power Company was striving to improve its technology to make the flue gas emitted by coal-fired power plants as clean as the flue gas emitted by power plants which use natural gas, Deng stated. 

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