Read on Twitter
The politics of this decision is pretty complex. Mayor of Taichung city uses Taichung coal fired power plant as a excuse to attack nuclear phase-out policy of the government, although the air pollutant emission of Taichung coal fired reduced by half between 2015 to 2020. (1/n) https://twitter.com/laurimyllyvirta/status/1356260417329373190
Taichung city ask Taipower should demolish the four thermal units first, then they are willing to allow the addition of two gas turbines, but Taichung city didn't try to formulate any phase-out roadmap for the coal fired . Although they sign up climate emergency declaration (2/n)
In order to break deadlock, key congress members of the ruling party (DPP ) proposed to set up 2035 as a phase-out date for Taichung coal fired power plant, to earn the public support of the allowance of gas turbines. But this political strategy is still historical (3/n)
Before this resolution, Bureau of Energy avoid any discussion about coal exist date, although we say it is the elephant in the room of climate policy in Taiwan. Taipower still try to keep the share of coal fired power plant around 18%~20% in 2035. (4/n)
But this resolution open up the window of opportunity to ask the government to commit a coal exit date before COP26. It also enhance the possibilities for President @iingwen to declare #netzero by 2050. (5/n)
More interesting thing is that, the main drivers of the public concern of Taichung coal fired power plant is air pollution. This is also the main argument from city government. But the resolution passed mention nothing about air pollution, only talk about climate change (6/n)
After the resolution was passed, it attracts the criticism from pro-nuclear media, saying that the nuclear power is the true solution for Taichung coal fired power plant, the supply security of LNG is low, mention nothing about accelerate RE and EE. (7/n) https://www.storm.mg/article/3435326
According to net-zero pathway that we modeled at this study, the share of coal fired w/o CCS should be reduced to less than 2% of the total generation by 2035, while LNG will keep around 32%, then decreases dramatically afterward. (8/n) https://doi.org/10.1016/j.egycc.2020.100022
To sum up, although LNG turbine is a string to this resolution, but it still open up policy space for decarbonization. The two LNG units will be the necessary stranded assets, but I will propose the alternative for the other two units to make it consistent with #netzero pathway.
