Rob agricultural land to grow electricity, but be tolerant of industry? The draft of the Ministry of Economic Affairs exempts 90% of the major electricity users from the compulsory installation of green power, and the people's League approves a retrogress

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On the grounds of the goal of "20% green electricity in 2025", the government has caused a lot of controversy by forcing photovoltaics in agricultural and fishery areas. at the same time, it has greatly relaxed the rules that "large power users" need to install green electricity. Enterprises with a contractual capacity of more than 800KW are required to install 10% green electricity, while the new draft of the Ministry of Economic Affairs is changed to more than 5000KW. Originally, it was estimated that 5,000 large power users would need to generate electricity on their own, but now there are only 500, which has been questioned by the outside world. "Green Power will turn when it comes to industry."

In addition, the Renewable Energy Development Ordinance originally stipulated that government agencies should take the lead in producing green power, but the draft of the Ministry of Economic Affairs removed all government agencies and educational units, which obviously contravened the mother law. The draft is currently being announced on the public policy platform, and ring tour and renewable energy operators urge that the Ministry of Economic Affairs's plan should not be allowed to pass hastily, so as not to ruin the future of green power.

Gao Ruping, chairman of the Taiwan Renewable Energy Promotion Alliance, points out that this draft "fails to really implement the purpose of the original legislation in terms of the object of regulation, the content of obligations, and the method of implementation." it not only fails to urge the major power users to fulfill their corporate social responsibility, but also is not conducive to Taiwan's future green power market. "

The roof of the factory in Liuying Science and Technology Park in Tainan is equipped with photovoltaic panels (provided by the public). The central laws and regulations are backward, and you can't see the taillights of the local government.

There are about 5,000 large electricity users across the country, but the draft "provisions on large electricity users" arrived belatedly, and the Ministry of Economic Affairs finally announced in February this year. As soon as the Bill was published, there were many problems questioned by civic groups, and the biggest controversy was that the provision that the contractual capacity was above 5000KW could be regarded as a "major electricity user" and was criticized as too conservative.

"the Ministry of Economic Affairs has nothing to do with the shouting of large electricity users." Gao Ruping said that in the past, the definition of large power users regulated by the Energy Bureau and local governments was 800KW, but the Ministry of Economic Affairs was under pressure from the industry to raise the definition to 5000KW this time, completely eliminating the large electricity users of 800-4999KW.

In this way, these large power users in the electrical and electronics industry, chemical industry, and metal industry may ignore their environmental responsibilities. how can they promote the development of renewable energy in Taiwan?.

Green electricity should be set up compulsorily above the local standard 800KW, and the central government should relax it to 5000KW.

Lin Muxing, an assistant researcher at the Center for risk Society and Policy Research at National Taiwan University, said, "the central government can't see the taillights of local governments." Local governments Tainan, Taichung and Taoyuan have long used the energy matching system to encourage enterprises within their administrative areas to use themselves. For example, in 2013, the Tainan municipal government adopted regulations on the autonomy of low-carbon cities, requiring large power users with contractual capacity above 800KW to install more than 10% solar photovoltaic power generation equipment. Taichung and Taoyuan municipal governments have also followed suit in 2016 and 2017.

The local standard is 800KW, but the central standard is relaxed to 5000KW. Kao Ruping, for example, says that enterprises between 800 and 5000KW in Tainan were originally required by the local government to make optoelectronic equipment, but now the central government says they don't have to do it. "isn't the central government doing injustice to the local government?"

The roof of the factory in Liuying Science and Technology Park in Tainan is covered with photovoltaic panels (provided by the public). Energy industry: originally expected 5,000 enterprises to do photovoltaics on the roof, but instantly there were only 300 left.

It is hard to hide the disappointment of the renewable energy industry with the new draft. Chen Kunhong, chairman of Tiantai Energy, said, "at first, the threshold that we will hear in public hearing is set at 800KW. This issue has been reviewed since April last year. When there is a presidential election at the end of the year, there may be some election pressure, which makes people expect to abide by the terms of major electricity users above 800KW, and gradually raise it to 1500KW, 2000KW, and finally to 5000KW. This has also reduced the number of enterprises that need to take inventory from 5,000 to 300 in an instant. "

There are 5,000 large electricity users in the country with contracted capacity exceeding 800KW, but only 500 electricity users exceed 5000KW. In fact, there are only about 300 enterprises. Even if all the renewable energy equipment with 10% capacity is installed within five years in accordance with the draft provisions, and the roof is covered with photovoltaic panels, there is only 1GW.

According to the Renewable Energy Promotion Alliance, 1GW can only generate 1.2 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity, but at present, these 500 major electricity users are estimated to use as much as 70 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity a year, that is, even if these enterprises comply with the regulations and install photovoltaic panels, the electricity generated is less than 2% of their actual electricity consumption.

According to statistics from the Energy Bureau of the Ministry of Economic Affairs, the total consumption of electricity exceeding 800KW in 2018 was 153.3 billion kilowatt-hours. Today, only electricity users above 5000KW are regulated, and the electricity consumption is 70 billion kilowatt-hours, less than half of it.

Lin Muxing also pointed out that enterprises may also follow suit.