New climate committee deputy touts 60% green, nuclear energy mix

Taipei, June 26 (CNA) Taiwan's energy mix should be 30 percent renewable energy and 30 percent nuclear power, according to Pegatron Group Chairman Tung Tzu-hsien (童子賢) Wednesday, after being recently appointed by President Lai Ching-te (賴清德) as deputy convener of a newly established climate committee.

Tung, chairman of Taiwan-based contract electronics maker Pegatron Corp, was appointed June 19 to co-lead the newly established National Climate Change Response Committee. The other two deputy conveners are Vice Premier Cheng Li-chiun (鄭麗君) and Academia Sinica President James Liao (廖俊智), with the president himself as convener.

Tung said on the sidelines of a forum on Wednesday that Taiwan's efforts to cut carbon emissions was ranked seventh from bottom (61st out of 67 entities) in the Climate Change Performance Index - a ranking compiled by several non-profit environment groups to track countries' climate mitigation performance - when the index was published at COP 28 last year.

Taiwan's energy policy has been "stuck" by the "no-nuclear homeland" policy, Tung said.

The no-nuclear homeland policy has been the ruling Democratic Progressive Party's (DPP) top energy priority for decades.

Tung said his call for nuclear power is based on his reading of the statistics for the country's green power generation over the past four years.

Solar energy currently accounts for 4.6 percent of Taiwan's energy mix, with wind at 2.2 percent, which means only 6.8 percent of Taiwan's electricity comes from green power (excluding hydro), the deputy convener said.

There is potential for renewable energy to grow four or five fold in the future, but Taiwan's environment might not able to accommodate 30 to 40 percent renewables in the energy mix, Tung said.

Citing the numbers provided by Taiwan Power Co., Tung said solar power generation efficiency is currently only 9 to 14 percent.

To satisfy estimated power use in 2030, an area the size of around 12 Taipei Cities would have to be used for solar power, and that is simply not possible in Taiwan, Tung argued.

At the same time, wind power is also intermittent and cannot be guaranteed.

The new deputy convener of the climate committee stressed that while he does not blame renewables for harming the environment, there is the possibility green power expansion could hurt the environment and farmland.

The "energy mix golden ratio" should be 30 percent green power, 30 percent nuclear, with the remaining 40 percent fuel-based that can be replaced by hydrogen when the related technology improves, Tung said.

In the same way mobile phone technology has greatly advanced, nuclear technology will further develop to take up less space, generate power more efficiently and be safer, he added

Energy policy should be discussed with less politics and more focus on the needs of the industry and households, Tung said.

(By Jeffrey Wu and Alison Hsiao)

Enditem/AW