Earth citizen / in the face of optoelectronic conflict, where is our way out?

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(by Phil Newell) / Cai Huixun (Director of the Earth Citizen Foundation)

A few days ago, two reports on the symbiosis of fishery and electricity in the upstream and downstream news showed quite completely the doubts and worries of the aquaculture community about the policy of symbiosis of fishery and electricity. for example, the area of farming has shrunk sharply, the output and quality are lack of empirical evidence, and tenants dare not oppose it for fear of being terminated. And so on, are urgent and important issues.

Taking a comprehensive view of the frequent optoelectronic disputes across Taiwan, no matter whether they are trying to combine symbiotic optoelectronic with agricultural and fishery management, or large and small optoelectronic areas with land change, there is the problem of crowding out the competition and cooperation between the ecological environment and the agricultural and fishing industry. In the final analysis, the problem lies in "the current optoelectronic setting procedure completely lacks the assessment of environmental and social impacts, and there is also a lack of information disclosure and citizen participation in the process, and the state is still not clear about how much optoelectronics we need and how to choose a suitable site."

Although the policy declares that "agriculture and fishing should be given priority to, supplemented by green energy", due to the lack of legal mechanisms, most green energy operators, driven by interests, have strongly entered agricultural and fishing villages and public land, and optoelectronics seems to override rural areas, ecology and culture. All these highlight the need for more systematic and overall planning for optoelectronic development to resolve these conflicts and at the same time discuss and dialogue with stakeholders and society to reach a consensus as much as possible.

The government should establish a "community review mechanism" to examine location issues and countermeasures through scientific investigations and information, and expand the space for citizen participation. The picture shows seven-stranded fish fish in Tainan (photo by Fu Zhinan provided by the Earth Citizen Foundation) the government should specify a reasonable green power promotion strategy to respond to social worries.

First of all, Taiwan currently sets the proportion of renewable energy generation to account for 20% in 2025, of which roof photovoltaic devices target 6GW and surface photovoltaic devices are 14GW, which is estimated to require 14000 hectares of land. So where are these lands located? What is the impact on the environment and industry?

Even in order to achieve the 2050 national NDC (national self-defined contribution Nationally Determined Contribution) carbon reduction target, or even meet the global cooling target of 1.5C, while taking into account the food self-sufficiency rate and nature conservation goals, how much photovoltaics can our land and environment accommodate?

All these require the Ministry of Economic Affairs and relevant agencies to conduct scientific investigation and evaluation, and dialogue with society to specify the country's long-term and reasonable energy transformation goals and promotion strategies, and to respond to society's worries about environmental and industrial damage.

The central government should screen out less sensitive areas that are less controversial and assist local governments to give priority to the choice.

Secondly, the central ministries will promote optoelectronics to choose the strategy with the least impact, and select the less controversial low-sensitive areas through the overlap of ecology, cultural resources, land, etc., assist local governments to give priority to planning optoelectronic potential areas from low sensitive areas to conduct environmental and social checks, reduce the conflict between optoelectronics and local values, and suspend optoelectronic planning and trial in disputed areas, so as to build people's confidence in optoelectronic policy. It also reduces the unnecessary risks of green energy operators.

Third, the relevant units should more actively explain the details of the policy to the society. in addition to the explanation of the promotion strategy, they should also respond to people's doubts about the existing optoelectronic disputes, such as fishermen's symbiosis of fishing and electricity. The Council of Agriculture should provide full explanation and consultation, so as not to let fishermen face land integrators or operators directly under the condition of unequal information, and feel helpless and afraid of being deceived. At the same time, the Council of Agriculture should also complete the experimental results of symbiosis of agriculture, fishery and electricity as soon as possible, and establish feasible conditions and norms for symbiosis of agriculture, fishery and electricity.