Taiwan industries should follow electricity supply in AI era: Executive

Taipei, Aug. 26 (CNA) Taiwan should reverse its traditional approach to industrial planning by locating AI and other power-intensive industries where electricity and grid capacity are already available, an energy executive said Wednesday.

"In the past, electricity followed industry, but in the future, industry should follow electricity," Fabulous Power Co. General Manager Sam Hung (洪向民) said at the New Energy Forum in Taipei.

Hung said AI and high-tech industries should develop in areas where power plants, generation sources and grid resources have already been planned, rather than continuing the practice of establishing industrial parks first and then rushing to build power infrastructure nearby.

The proposal came as Hung and fellow panelist Kelsey Kuan (關婷怡) discussed the challenge of supplying stable, low-carbon electricity while Taiwan expands renewable generation and energy-intensive AI industries.

"Increasing installed capacity does not mean that the same amount of renewable electricity will be available. 24 hours a day, seven days a week," Hung said during the panel discussion at the Business Today-organized forum.

Solar and wind power are intermittent, while geothermal energy can provide continuous generation with a capacity factor exceeding 90 percent, making it a potential complement to those sources, he said.

Despite that potential, geothermal development in Taiwan remains constrained by high exploration risks, drilling costs and the limited scale of the domestic industry, according to Hung.

More comprehensive geological surveys by the government, combined with investment and participation from private companies and electricity users, will help reduce those risks and expand the sector, he added.

Speaking on the same panel, Kuan, general manager of Star Trade, said the rise of artificial intelligence data centers (AIDCs) will create additional challenges for Taiwan's power system.

Many AIDC operators have RE100 commitments, while Taiwan's green electricity supply remains tight, Kuan said.

RE100 is a global initiative under which companies pledge to source 100 percent of their electricity from renewable sources.

Storage, microgrids and more sophisticated power-management systems will therefore have to be developed before that demand materializes, Kuan said, noting that a storage project can take between 18 months and two years from securing land to completing procurement and construction.

Such facilities could store surplus renewable electricity and shift it to periods when companies need it, allowing businesses to use a larger share of the green power they purchase, she said.

Kuan also called for clear and consistent government policies and technical standards for energy projects.

"As long as policies and regulations are clear, businesses can respond quickly," she said.