The UK, the first country to produce electricity from burning coal, is to close its last coal-fired power station, ending its 142-year reliance on the fossil fuel, while generating about 15 percent of its electricity from about 6.5 gigawatts of nuclear capacity.
Pegatron Group chairman Tung Tzu-hsien (童子賢) compared the UK’s experience with Taiwan’s and said the nation should go nuclear-free, but continue using coal power.
It is true that Taiwan has not yet made concrete plans to stop using coal and that issue needs to be addressed. However, it seems Tung is unaware of Taiwan’s progress in alleviating air pollution and reducing carbon emissions by replacing coal power with liquefied natural gas.
The No. 2 reactor at the Ma-anshan Nuclear Power Plant in Pingtung County has recently been shut down for maintenance. Pro-nuclear advocates and biased media outlets used that development to spread the rumor that the government is “sacrificing people’s lungs” to generate electricity, saying that its “nuclear-free homeland” policy instead increases the use of fossil fuel, which produces air pollution and compromises the goal of reducing carbon emissions.
In fact, operable nuclear power capacity in Taiwan has declined from 5,018MWe in 2011 to 1,874MWe last year. The use of liquified natural gas has also replaced fossil fuel in the past few years, reducing the use of coal power plants. As a result, air quality has improved.
Air pollution from fossil fuel power plants has fallen from 37,000 metric tonnes in 2011 to 19,000 tonnes, or a decline of 66 percent.
Taiwan has promoted a nuclear-free energy transition, with the aim of stabilizing the power supply, reducing emissions, and improving the environment by minimizing the use of coal and increasing the use of natural gas and green energy.
Emissions from fossil fuel power plants have decreased from an average of 800,000 tonnes during the period between 2008 and 2013 to 520,000 tonnes between 2016 and last year, or a decline of 35 percent.
However, such hard-earned progress in carbon reduction was offset by the increase in total electricity consumption. The electricity carbon emission factor last year was 0.494kg of carbon dioxide per kilowatt-hour, almost the same as in 2022, but a decline of almost 6 percent from 0.525kg per kilowatt-hour in 2015.
The UK was able to substantially reduce carbon emissions, because of its reduction in energy consumption and development in renewable energy. Renewable energy sources provided about 46 percent of the UK’s electricity last year, with wind power alone accounting for about 28 percent of total electricity generated.
Therefore, its success in carbon reduction had nothing to do with using nuclear power. Nuclear power accounted for 13.9 percent of the total electricity supply in the UK in 2022, which was a significant decrease from 26 percent in 1997.
The increase in total electricity consumption in Taiwan is driven by the semiconductor industry and the development of artificial intelligence. To effectively lessen air pollution and reduce the electricity carbon emission factor, we should promote the use of renewable energy and energy saving.
To reduce carbon emissions before the use of green energy can be optimized, it is necessary to resort to natural gas to fill the gap in the demand for energy.
We have to get on the right path and do the right thing. That is the only way to reduce carbon emissions and lessen air pollution to ensure stable electricity supply during the nuclear-free energy transition period and to gradually achieve the net zero emission target by 2050.
Lin Ren-bin is a Taiwan Environmental Protection Union academic committee member.
Translated by Fion Khan
Concerns that the US might abandon Taiwan are often overstated. While US President Donald Trump’s handling of Ukraine raised unease in Taiwan, it is crucial to recognize that Taiwan is not Ukraine. Under Trump, the US views Ukraine largely as a European problem, whereas the Indo-Pacific region remains its primary geopolitical focus. Taipei holds immense strategic value for Washington and is unlikely to be treated as a bargaining chip in US-China relations. Trump’s vision of “making America great again” would be directly undermined by any move to abandon Taiwan. Despite the rhetoric of “America First,” the Trump administration understands the necessity of
In an article published on this page on Tuesday, Kaohsiung-based journalist Julien Oeuillet wrote that “legions of people worldwide would care if a disaster occurred in South Korea or Japan, but the same people would not bat an eyelid if Taiwan disappeared.” That is quite a statement. We are constantly reading about the importance of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC), hailed in Taiwan as the nation’s “silicon shield” protecting it from hostile foreign forces such as the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), and so crucial to the global supply chain for semiconductors that its loss would cost the global economy US$1
US President Donald Trump’s challenge to domestic American economic-political priorities, and abroad to the global balance of power, are not a threat to the security of Taiwan. Trump’s success can go far to contain the real threat — the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) surge to hegemony — while offering expanded defensive opportunities for Taiwan. In a stunning affirmation of the CCP policy of “forceful reunification,” an obscene euphemism for the invasion of Taiwan and the destruction of its democracy, on March 13, 2024, the People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) used Chinese social media platforms to show the first-time linkage of three new
Sasha B. Chhabra’s column (“Michelle Yeoh should no longer be welcome,” March 26, page 8) lamented an Instagram post by renowned actress Michelle Yeoh (楊紫瓊) about her recent visit to “Taipei, China.” It is Chhabra’s opinion that, in response to parroting Beijing’s propaganda about the status of Taiwan, Yeoh should be banned from entering this nation and her films cut off from funding by government-backed agencies, as well as disqualified from competing in the Golden Horse Awards. She and other celebrities, he wrote, must be made to understand “that there are consequences for their actions if they become political pawns of