One major issue that is driving out of my country of birth are its disastrous energy policies. Shutting down all nuclear power plants and insisting on riding an industrial economy on wind and solar alone.
It has driven energy prices through the roof and as a result industry is leaving (Germany) in droves.
But now I read that the progressive government of Taiwan plans to scuttle all its nuclear power plants, too, and put all their eggs into the alternative energy basket.
I thought the chip industry was a major backbone for Taiwan’s economy and manufacturing particularly AI chips requires o’ton of energy.
Was I mistaken or did the Taiwanese find a secret for dirt cheap wind & solar that everybody else has been missing? And they do have to compete with mainland China, which I’m sure provides energy to its industry as cheap as it gets.
It is possible for Taiwan to go coal and juclear free in a couple decades. Sadly Chunese oppression and realities of both physical and economic war due to China’s Tyranny will make it so that Taiwan will have to keep the nuclear plants functioning, at the very least for a “just in case” scenario. Nuclear power is here to stay so long as threats of war are here to stay.
The nuclear debate in Taiwan has been raging since Taipower Corporation decided to dump its low-level nuclear waste, without discussion or informed consent, into Tao Indigenous communities in the 1980s. The high level nuclear waste remains on Taiwan proper without a storage site.
Chernobyl catalyzed early activism in Taiwan against the nuclear industry, as did the Indigenous rights movement. The Fukushima disaster had a decisive impact on debates in the 2010s.
This piece published today in the Taipei Times reports on the Fukushima cleanup, which will take (in some estimates) more than a century.
You just chanted down the entire line of liberal activist talking points, that has wrecked the economy in my native Germany.
To be frank, I don’t give a hoot about Fukushima, if the alternative is the intentional ruin of the basis of everybody’s economic existence. And neither do the majority of Japanese people.
And I am PoC who doesn’t think that the sensitivities of an ethnic minority should dominate the public discourse to a degree, that the outcome becomes self-destructive.
I haven’t arrived in Taiwan yet. But if that country’s economy is headed the same way that Germany’s is, then I might have to rethink all of my plans anyway.
No use to jump from one sinking boat onto another.
I think nuclear power has some very powerful enemies, and as a result they’ve essentially stagnated in terms of progress and we are using old designs from the 1950s even today. They are also horrendously expensive to operate.
Sad fact is, green energy won’t be enough and any shortfalls will be met with fossil fuel. We can make it look green but fossil fuel is about the least controversial energy source out there.
It’s either that or 50 year old nuclear facilities because nothing new has been built. Even new facilities built are still using the same 50 year old design that’s less safe. There’s too little research into it. We can have designs that completely burns the fuel so there won’t be high level wastes, but that won’t happen because they are also useless for making bombs.
Energy is heavily subsidized by the government, as they know this is a manufacturing-heavy country (30% of the economy).
But yes, Taiwan will have to face the reality of having to use nuclear sooner or later. Even though the current government is anti-nuclear, industrialists like Bob Tsao and Terry Gou have already made a move in that direction, because they know soon, the government will have no choice.
But on the other hand, the government-owned electricity company (Taiwan has neither privatized their grid nor their electricity generation) is running huge deficits every year. So one could argue that electricity is heavy government-subsidized in Taiwan.
Don’t take the government’s plan to shift to wind and solar too seriously. The government has also plans to make Taiwan bilingual by 2030. And that’s still a long way to go…
Not every counter argument against nuclear energy is just a “liberal activist talking point”.
It’s true that nuclear energy can be cheaper and more reliable than other sources of electricity - but those calculations often don’t account for the cost of “disposing” (more like storing) of the waste and deconstruction of the power plant (let’s face it: After 40-60 years, most nuclear reactors have reached the end of their useful life). And nuclear reactors using new and safer designs are very costly to build - and take years or often decades to plan and build. So they’re definitely not a short term solution.
Also, it’s a bit naive to assume that the decline of Germany’s economy is primarily to blame on the shutdown of their nuclear reactors… Many factors to blame…
Unfortunately, it’s not Taiwan which is able to decide that primarily.
I think everyone living in Taiwan does hope that peace will prevail - but it’s also difficult to ignore when China keeps threatening non-peaceful “reunification” and regularly holds military exercises simulating blockades of Taiwan…
And, personally, in the event of an armed conflict, I wouldn’t want to live close by a nuclear power plant. The war in the Ukraine has shown that wars and attacks might also involve those power plants…
I am doing research now, don’t I? And assuming that a country with a business model so dependent on affordable energy as Taiwan with its chip industry (namely NVDIA AI) wouldn’t repeat the same mistakes as Germany isn’t that far fetched.
Oh, in Germany we got plenty of “green energy”. They crammed the whole countryside full with windmills and solar panels - both of which we have to buy from China now.
Then the sky gets cloudy or the wind stops blowing - and you have to either import (expensive, for at spot price) nuclear energy from France or dirty coal power from Poland.
Our entire energy grid has become unstable because of these fluctuations. And w/o cheap Russian gas, you have to switch from exporting excess energy (also required to keep the grid stable) from importing power often many times per hour.
The whole thing has turned into a bad joke and from Volkswagen to Bosch to BASF, factories are closing left right and center.
I love wind and solar - but not for the base load. And most certainly not w/o any feasible storage technology. I am a corporate IT engineer. I need high tech, I need industry to make a living.
I thought with mainland China on their door step, the Taiwanese would know how important cheap, reliable energy is.
Yeah, they tried subsidizing alternative energy prices in Germany. With the result that private “providers” started to install balcony sized power “hubs” well - on their balconies. By the thousands. And then they send the invoice to the government.
It made the grid even more unstable and they had to revise the scheme half a dozen times. And they’re still not anywhere near done with just figuring out the finances.
Hey, I’m no friend of Xi Jing Ping. I think Deng Xiaoping was a lot more level headed as a leader. But things are what they are and mainland China won’t go away.
And as a corporate IT engineer I know that sometimes you simply have to keep a system stable, that you’d much rather just throw against the wall.
You reiterate talking points that were valid when they build Chernobyl or Fukushima. But technology progresses and modern day nuclear power plants produce only a fraction of the radioactive waste that their predecessors did, and they can physically no longer “explode”.
Indeed, they are so safe now, that I personally wouldn’t have a problem living right next to one.
Yeah, except the problem about all the Nuclear reactors in Germany and most of them in Taiwan aren’t “modern day nuclear power plants”. They’re decades old! And thus they don’t follow modern-day safety standards.
So the discussion (regarding Germany) shouldn’t be about continuing to run outdated plants but to build new ones. Yet, most of the discussion was just extending the operation time of plants that had already reached their designated end of life.
France is actually building new ones and shutting down some old ones which experience issues - because they also know that they cannot just keep them running forever.
People in Taiwan are very pragmatic in that regard. That’s why those who want to formally declare independence are a small minority.
Yet, it’s not Taiwan trying to overthrow the current status quo…
You have to understand how the average Taiwanese view these things. I understand all these problems you’ve experienced in Germany, it’s a real shame. As others mentioned the nuclear debate in Taiwan has gone on for a long time, long before green energy was much of a concern. It’s gonna take a lot of work to change the negative views many people have about nuclear energy especially now that there are new options. Even though Fukushima was quite some time ago it still comes up in the news. If I recall there’s still ongoing issues with the waste storage. Taiwan isn’t necessarily stupid, people just have very different lived experiences. Personally I’m just happy to see pollution levels drop despite the move away from nuclear.
Root of the problem: Taiwanese government isn’t that clear, logical nor well versed. I don’t want to say useless, but…close to? Nuclear waste disposal is still simply a question mark. Building plants and ck stant changes and delays. This blame is bipartisan. Bot h our China parry and Democratic party, both equally guilty on doing everything wrong.
Despite every opportunity to lead sustainable energy, Taiwan has simply just decided to fill proper farm land, taking away good security, to put in panels that aren’t maintained and simply just. Ashow of face that will soon be garbage. Same with parks, roads etc. It’s a disgrace, and both political parties are fully guilty of this.
We can’t call solar bad, nuclear bad, wind bad simply because we haven’t experienced a literate government to manage things. Not even close to half assed. We are lucky we havent had a massive disaster. But we have had slow movong massive disasters in terms of pollution and the like. Their land management, waste etc has always been a nightmare. In 2025, still a nightmare. People should be worried about our governments’ ability in managing these things because they have done fuck all to prove they are even remotely close to capable of the job… .
It’s understandable people are more worried about fossil fuels and nuclear, because they know the inadequacy of our government and those 2 sources have real life risks and health concerns when the government does a shit job. Compared to killing some birds or fucking up food security, they are more serious a heat to human health. Especially on such a tony land mass
Spoke with a dude from the CCP a few days ago and those mainlanders are convinced that Taiwan might opt for a nuclear bomb, if encouraged to do so by the Americans.
Now I find that hard to believe, for a government already afraid of the civilian use of nuclear power.
What you describe about solar power - brainlessly paneling up the countryside - is exactly the way they do it in Germany. They waste top farmland on that crap. I don’t mind solar, but I can’t eat silicone.
