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German Greens are here to help

Germany's experience in introducing legislation to promote the use of renewable energy deserves to be studied by Taiwan, which is over-dependent on imported sources of energy, lawmakers said yesterday.

During a press conference at the Legislative Yuan, the lawmakers underlined the urgency of Taiwan's need to develop renewable sources of energy.

"The development of renewable energy-related technologies deserves to be promoted in the near future because sources of fossil fuels are scarce in this country," DPP Legislator Lai Chin-lin (賴勁麟) said.

When the DPP came to power three years ago, years of environmental debate came to a head when the government decided to scrap the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant. Since being persuaded to revive the plant, the government has promoted renewable energy in a bid to improve Taiwan's international competitiveness.

According to the Energy Commission under the Ministry of Economic Affairs, about 10 percent of Taiwan's energy could come from renewable sources by 2020 if laws awaiting approval in the Legislative Yuan are passed.

Energy-related laws under review in the legislature include Subsidy Regulations for Developing Renewable Energy (獎勵再生能源發展條例) and the Energy Conservation Law (節約能源法).

Lai yesterday invited Hans-Josef Fell, a German Green Party legislator who has long worked to promote renewable energy worldwide, to the Legislative Yuan to give an overview of Germany's experience in passing laws to promote renewable energy.

In Germany, the Electricity Feed Law had since 1991 regulated the utility companies' use of electricity from renewable sources by introducing, among other things, fixed concessionary charges as incentives.

In 2000, the law was replaced by the even more radical Renewable Energy Law (REG). The REG now serves as the basis for the implementation of renewable energy technologies in Germany. It regulates the purchase of energy that has been produced exclusively from renewable sources. This is controlled by power companies that operate grids for general electricity usage.

According to Fell, key factors leading to the successful introduction of German renewable energy legislation included well-designed regulations on compulsory purchases and guarantees of fixed prices for two decades for electricity converted from renewable energy sources, with prices varying depending on the source of renewable energy.

According to Fell, Germany introduced the legislation due to environmental concerns and because of the country's limited supply of fossil fuels.

As a result of the measures, Fell said, more than 100,000 job opportunities were created in Germany's renewable energy-related industries in the last decade.

Having championed the cause of renewable energies for decades, Fell said that he was glad to see that Taiwan plans to pass laws to promote renewable energy.

"Germany is willing to offer Taiwan relevant information, in assisting the legislature to pass laws," Fell said.

Fell said that lawmakers should strive both to educate the public about the risks of reliance on fossil fuels and persuade the government to embrace new, global trends in the energy sector.

To explore possible cooperation between the government and Germany's Green Party on energy issues, Minister without Portfolio Yeh Jiunn-rong (葉俊榮) and Vice Minister of Economic Affairs Steve Chen (陳瑞隆) visited Germany earlier this month to study strategies for phasing out Taiwan's dependency on nuclear energy.

Yeh said the government hopes to turn Taiwan into a nuclear-free country by mothballing the three operational nuclear power plants and solving Taiwan's radioactive waste-management problems.
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