“it will emit… the equivalent of the annual emissions of all the 1.6 million cars in Taipei City and New Taipei city combined”
If this truly comes about, Taipei will become just like Taichung and its friendly neighborhood coal plant.
The winds blow it from the north east to the South West towards Taipei and into Yilan.
It will be the new view from Jiufen.
Tsai Ing-wen has been such a breath of fresh air.
So this is the DPP’s idea of striving for regional parity? Apparently their goal is to make the air in northern Taiwan as awful as the air in central and southern Taiwan.
The timing of construction of the Shenao coal plant is ridiculous as the targeted opening in 2025 is the same year renewables are scheduled to be up and running and supposedly meeting 20% of Taiwan’s projected energy needs (as per the Diplomat article linked above).
A “step back” indeed.
Guy
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I hope all the 反核 crowd is happy. Typically for Taiwan, they utterly missed the point; instead of protesting nuclear power they should have been protesting ignorance, corruption and incompetence.
I am sorry, the situation on the ground is far more nuanced than that. I am not speaking of official decision-making bodies, which remain in too many respects contemptible for their disregard for health and safety issues. I am speaking of the environmental movement more generally and the ways it has had to adapt to a shifting situation. If you wish to learn more, check out the 2018 documentary The Age of Awakening, which I just saw at a special screening (packed house) at the Taiwan Documentary Film Festival. It’ll also be screening on Public Television soon. It tells an amazing story and it will certain give you a more complex view of the matter than anti-nukes leads to pro-coal.
Guy
I dunno. It was blindingly obvious to me that the thinking of Taiwan’s establishment would lead to more coal in at least the short term if nuclear was roadblocked. And I never agreed with the protests in the first place because the problems with Taiwan’s nuclear power program don’t stem from being nuclear per se: rather they stem from criminal negligence, ignorance, shortsightedness and corruption.
As far as I’m concerned Longjing would have been a better focus of environmental protest. I wouldn’t be surprised if the whole anti-nuke movement was instigated by people with a vested interest in fossil fuels.
And this is why I hate Tsai Ing-wen…
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So basically another mothballed pet proyect for the cement/construction mafia? Something for the citizens to pay for but never use? That is the best case scenario.
Well, having the nuclear plant closed is way easier than demanding/getting competence and responsibility and efficiency. Heck, if even Japan drops the ball on this regard, well, what can you expect from the syndicate mafia at Taipower?
I am sorry but this is simply untrue. Please learn something about this movement before you make such claims.
Sadly this looks more like the venal profit-taking Taiwan-from-above with which we are all too familiar. It also has nothing to do with anti-nuclear activists or activism.
Guy
You can also share your love with the A-Bian and Ma administrations, who did not have the vision or political will to push for renewables. At least finally this is moving forward, making the proposed Shenao Coal Plant even more risible.
Guy
Who does Taiwan buy coal from?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E0W1ZZYIV8o
The options for generating large amount of power (GW scale) are:
Coal, die to smog and CO poisoning
Oil, die to smog and oil leakage
Water, die to poisoned water and damage to water ecosystem
Nuclear, die to nuclear radiation
All have damaging effect to environment.
Even large windmill (peaked at 8MW) allegedly dangerous to local birds.
Pick your poison, human.
There is nothing to be learnt from a movement that entirely discounts human nature and naively assumes that with nuclear power shut off, people will just change their habits and consume less energy. A freshman class in economics would do these treehuggers well! The uneducated imbeciles making up the 反核 movement in Taiwan form an important part of the DPP’s support base and are entirely to blame for the new coal power plant in Taipei.
Neither Chen Shui-bian nor Ma Ying-jeou ran on a renewables platform. In contrast, renewable energy and shutting off all nuclear power plants was a central part of Tsai Ing-wen’s campaign. And now we are faced with the prospect of more pollution and not less pollution.
LIGHT UP TAIWAN! Tsai Ing-wen meant this quite literally!
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Mainly Indonesia and Australia
So the question then becomes: how to incentivize this? If you are saying that this has not yet happened I am in full agreement.
On the other hand, to claim that the anti-nuke movement is responsible for an industrial policy dependent on (as stated in The Age of Awakening, the excellent documentary film I referred to above) cheap energy, cheap land, and cheap labour, well then I am sorry because they are not. Taiwan’s tired industrial model based on these three allegedly “cheap” sources is more anti-human and anti-nature than anything the environmental movement could envision.
Guy
Question more or less on the same topic: how feasible is hydroelectric power in Taiwan? I mean, we already have destrooyed most rivers and the water reservoirs are ful with sediment, so what else can we destroy?
Moreover, even the wind turbines have flown away in a typhoon.
Hydroelectric is a no-go in Taiwan. No large river.
Some thing like tidal wave or offshore wind would be an alternative for complement, but not the solution.
Offshore stuff have its own consequences.
Shutting down nuclear power plants, means we need to start living like our ancestors several generations earlier. Chew binlang and play mahjong for past-time activity after sunset.
Wind power (like solar power and most other renewables) are small power generators. Can’t solve all the energy problem.
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