Taiwan Today

Scientific research and messaging are crucial to sustainable energy.
 

Last September, four students from the automobile department at National Lotung Industrial Vocational High School were accompanied by their schoolmates and teachers to capital city Taipei, where they became prize-winning school heroes with potential to give Tesla competition in the future. Hailing from the northeastern Taiwan county of Yilan, they won awards in an innovative energy contest held at National Taipei University of Technology. This annual event organized by the Taiwan Association for Hydrogen Energy and Fuel Cell (THEFC), based at National Central University (NCU), challenges senior high school and college students to build and run hydrogen-powered vehicles. The university in the northern city of Taoyuan practices what it preaches by having one of the country’s most advanced self-sufficient campus energy systems supplied by solar power and other green sources. R&D and outreach events like the hydrogen vehicle competition by the university’s Center for Energy Research (CER) and THEFC help contribute to communicating the country’s energy reform and sustainability objectives.

Generating Interest

Such events are part of a growing impetus for sustainable energy that stems from both government policy and private research projects, permeating education and social awareness. The culmination of at least a decade of government policy initiatives came last March, when Taiwan’s Pathway to Net-Zero Emissions in 2050 (TPNE) plan was released by the Cabinet-level National Development Council. Formulated with recommendations from the Cabinet-level National Science and Technology Council (NSTC) and the Ministries of Economic Affairs, the Interior, and Transportation and Communications, the plan lays out systematic strategies to trigger transition in the energy, industrial, lifestyle and social spheres while strengthening climate legislation and technological R&D.
 

It covers major areas such as solar, wind and hydrogen energy, as well as carbon capture, storage and utilization (CCSU). Under TPNE, the government proposes at least 60 percent of electricity be generated by renewable energy and around 10 percent from hydrogen by 2050. At the same time, fossil fuels supplemented by CCSU approaches will drop to less than 30 percent of the total. Scientific knowledge and techniques need to be constantly updated to meet energy innovation challenges, according to the NSTC.
 

Currently, Taiwan’s solar power capacity has grown over seven times since 2016 to exceed 9 gigawatts and is expected to reach 30 GW by 2030. The rapidly expanding wind power sector in the Taiwan Strait has seen two offshore farms featuring 43 turbines operate in waters off the coasts of Miaoli and Changhua Counties in northern and central Taiwan. The latter is run by state-run utility provider Taiwan Power Co. (Taipower), which started construction of its second wind farm off Changhua last November with 31 turbines producing 294.5 megawatts. These are part of plans to reach an installed national generating capacity of over 20 GW by 2035.

Nurturing Research

The country’s biomass and geothermal resources as well as marine currents are all being explored to help power a sustainable future. These sectors require continuous research especially in the emerging field of hydrogen energy, according to Tseng Chung-jen (曾重仁), professor at NCU’s Department of Mechanical Engineering. Tseng heads the university’s CER and THEFC. Established in 2005, the latter group comprises academics, researchers, business operators and government officials who organize forums, offer training courses and build international connections with organizations like the U.S.-based Partnership for Advancing the Transition to Hydrogen.
 

Tseng is also a member of the Executive Yuan’s working group on decarbonized energy systems, which was set up in April 2021 along with three other interministerial taskforces on business and energy efficiency, carbon-negative techniques, and green transportation, respectively, to support the net-zero campaign. Helping develop hydrogen energy is a priority for Tseng’s team, as the fuel is produced in a carbon-free process and emits only water when combusted with oxygen. “Taiwan carbon emissions have remained at a stable level since their peak in the early 2000s,” Tseng said. “Hydrogen fuel can make further significant contributions to greenhouse gas reduction when it’s used in previously carbon-intensive industrial processes.”
 

Taiwan’s academic and research institutions have studied hydrogen technologies for over two decades now, according to Tseng. Up to mid-2010, however, programs suffered from limited access to resources owing to a change in international trends and a consequent shift in domestic policy, he said. Now is the time for accelerated R&D in next-generation energy options ranging from hydrogen production to its compression, transport, storage and applications. Government policy with a focus on hydrogen power has led to an increased number of collaborative programs between industry and academia such as those undertaken in Tseng’s labs. “This area requires that commercial companies possess a high level of technical expertise,” he said. “We’re often approached for advice and consultation.” A major platform for such cross-sector exchange and collaboration is the government-supported Taiwan Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Partnership based at Taiwan Institute of Economic Research in Taipei.

Industry-Academia Cooperation

Organizations like Taiwan Carbon Capture Storage and Utilization Association (TCCSUA) based in the northern city of Hsinchu—with support from the Green Energy and Environment Research Laboratories in the state-backed Industrial Technology Research Institute—work on other key R&D domains. TCCSUA Chair Ma Hsiao-kang (馬小康) is a former academic in the Research Center for Climate Change and Sustainable Development at Taipei-based National Taiwan University and also serves as the secretary-general of the Association of Taiwan Net Zero Emissions (ATNZE), which was jointly established in 2021 in the capital by the nongovernmental Taiwan Institute for Sustainable Energy and 26 enterprises. ATNZE’s member companies such as Kaohsiung City-headquartered China Steel Corporation in southern Taiwan and Taipei-based Taiwan Cement Corporation have been working on CCSU-related projects, as have Taipower and Kaohsiung-based CPC Corporation. The latter, for example, boasts considerable advantages in this field thanks to its drilling expertise, underground gas storage experience and rich collection of on- and offshore geological data, according to Ma. “As TPNE has specified a carbon dioxide sequestration goal of 40.2 million metric tons per year, Taiwan needs to develop technical know-how on achieving CCSU targets through international R&D cooperation,” he said. 
 

Alongside rapid development of net-zero technologies, both Ma and Tseng recognize the need to build a corresponding legal framework for carbon tariffs and related public trading systems to be introduced in the Climate Change Act. The legislation has been renamed from the previous Greenhouse Gas Reduction and Management Act and is currently being revised to meet the government’s net-zero goals. 
 

For Ma, supporting ongoing sustainable initiatives through public dialogue is also indispensable, whether these are school projects or community-based discussion on local development issues. Taking the concerns of local communities and civil groups into account on the environmental impact of carbon sequestration, wind farms and geothermal power plants is vital to the success of sustainable energy projects. TPNE’s key strategies in this sphere prioritize justice in energy transition and civic engagement mechanisms to address conflicts and disputes through public-private partnership. “Social and natural sciences must go hand in hand to advance our knowledge and put requirements into practice for a sustainable future,” Ma said. 

Write to Pat Gao at cjkao@mofa.gov.tw