中文导读
台湾的能源供应状况百出，几度大规模断电不仅给民众的生活带来不便，而且对许多工厂生产造成了影响。蔡英文坚决要用新能源来替换现在的核能供电，但是建立新能源工厂的路途漫漫。台湾因能源不足已经错失了很多经济发展良机，同时国际地位也越加孤立。如果能源都无法充足供应，那么又怎么有动力谈发展呢？
A massive blackout prompts questions about Taiwan’s energy policy.
LARGE parts of Taiwan went black: roads were lit only by the headlights of the cars driving along them, and even the capital’s landmark skyscraper, Taipei 101, was in darkness. The emergency services were inundated with calls, many from people trapped in lifts. The giant power cut on August 15th saw nearly half of all households on the island lose electricity. Power was restored everywhere in about five hours. But the questions the blackout raised about the wisdom of the government’s promise to shut down nuclear power stations will linger much longer.
When Tsai Ing-wen became president last year she promised to phase out nuclear power, which provided some 14% of Taiwan’s electricity last year, by 2025. But building new electricity-generating plants to replace the country’s six nuclear reactors will be expensive, especially if, as Ms Tsai plans, most of the new power comes from renewable sources. Higher power prices, in turn, are hard to square with the broader need to revitalise the island’s economy and to boost wages, which have stagnated for more than a decade, prompting a severe brain drain.
Taiwan’s previous big power failure, in 1999, was caused by a massive earthquake. This one was the result of incompetence. A power station in Taoyuan in the north of the island abruptly shut down after workers accidentally cut off its supply of natural gas. But the government already knew that supply and demand were finely balanced. When a typhoon toppled a pylon in eastern Taiwan at the end of July, public servants were ordered to switch off air-conditioning in their offices for two hours a day for over a week, despite an unusually hot summer, to reduce the risk of a blackout.
The dramatic effects of the blunder this week revealed the scale of the problem. A new nuclear plant was completed in 2014 but has never been started up. Three of the six operational reactors have been closed for maintenance. This left Taiwan without enough spare generating capacity. On August 11th the anxious head of the country’s main industrial association had visited Ms Tsai to ask her to restart the idle reactors, to no avail. The president’s office released a statement after the meeting insisting that nothing but the weather was amiss, although it also argued that an overly centralised grid is unstable—another reason to invest in renewables.
After the blackout, the economy minister resigned. But his departure will not solve the underlying problem. Getting rid of nuclear power is written into the founding charter of Ms Tsai’s Democratic Progressive Party. Polls show that a majority of Taiwanese oppose its use (or did so before the lights went out), in large part because of the meltdown at the Fukushima-Daiichi nuclear plant in Japan in 2011, which led to widespread contamination and mass evacuations.
Ms Tsai has had a tough first year in office: worsening relations with China have dented tourism and left Taiwan more isolated internationally. The president’s approval rating has plummeted. The power cut endangers one of the few bright spots: rising foreign investment, particularly in the tech sector, which is central to the country’s export-led economy. Even before the blackout, the American Chamber of Commerce had raised concerns about the reliability of the power supply. In chip-making, it pointed out, even brief power cuts can cause ruinous damage to equipment. It also warned that Taiwanese industry would lose out to foreign competition if power prices rose. All this casts a pall over Ms Tsai’s bright talk about creating an “Asian Silicon Valley” by encouraging entrepreneurs. It is hard to feel empowered during a power cut.
——
Aug 17th, 2017 | Asia | 610 words
