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
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