Taiwan vows US$32 billon spending spree on clean energy as it lags on climate targets

Name: Major Taiwan reef at risk of being developed into gas terminal
Uploaded: 2022-03-30T12:05:34.000Z
Duration: 4 min 3 s
Description: Major Taiwan reef at risk of being developed into gas terminal

National Development Council report lays out a road map for the island to hit net-zero emissions by 2050, a goal set by President Tsai Ing-wen last year

Taiwan has struggled with an energy transition that attempts to cut emissions while moving away from nuclear energy

Reading Time:2 minutes

Why you can trust SCMP

Bloomberg

Published: 8:05pm, 30 Mar 2022Updated: 10:00pm, 30 Mar 2022

Taiwan is planning a massive clean energy spending spree until 2030 to redouble climate efforts after government officials said they were likely to miss 2025 targets.

The government and state-owned companies plan to spend about NT$900 billion (US$32 billion) between 2022 and 2030 on renewable technologies, grid infrastructure and energy storage, according to a report posted on the National Development Council website on Wednesday. The report lays out a road map for the island to hit net-zero emissions by 2050, a goal set by President Tsai Ing-wen last year.

The report came a day after Minister of Economic Affairs Wang Mei-Hua told lawmakers the island was likely to reach the goal of producing 20 per cent of its power from renewable sources in 2026 or 2027, later than the original plan of 2025, the Economic Daily News reported.

Taiwan has struggled in recent years with an energy transition that attempts to reduce emissions while also moving away from unpopular but carbon-free nuclear energy. Regional blackouts hit the island this month in the latest sign its electrical grid is creaking under the weight of rising demand from technology manufacturers, including the world’s biggest chip maker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company.

“Taiwan power users including TSMC are most likely to see a rising power bill in the coming years, due to the clean energy transition combined with an increase in natural gas prices,” said BloombergNEF power analyst Wei Hanyang. Still, it “may not be sufficient to prevent Taiwan from another serious blackout if there were unexpected malfunctions or extreme weather events”.

04:03

Major Taiwan reef at risk of being developed into gas terminal

Wednesday’s report calls for 60 per cent to 70 per cent of Taiwan’s power to come from renewable sources by 2050, 9-12 per cent from hydrogen and as much as 27 per cent from fossil fuels equipped with carbon capture technology. The government’s plan to phase out nuclear power by 2025 remains unchanged, Economic Daily News reported, citing Premier Su Tseng-chang.

Select Voice

Choose your listening speed

Get through articles 2x faster

1.25x

250 WPM

Slow

Average

Fast

00:0000:00

1.25x