Taipei, May 4 (CNA) Economics Minister Shih Yen-shiang said Wednesday his ministry will present a new energy policy within one to two months after being grilled by legislators who questioned the government's effort to ween Taiwan off fossil fuels or nuclear power.
Shih pledged to come up with a new policy after briefing legislators on Taiwan's alternative energy policy and energy saving efforts in a session of the Economics Committee.
Taiwan plans to increase renewable energy sources as a percent of the country's total electricity generating capacity from the current 6 percent to 16 percent, or 10,858 megawatts, by 2030, Shih said, with a quarter of it coming from offshore wind turbines.
He also expected the installed capacity of solar energy to increase to 2,500 MW by 2030 -- from 8.5 MW today -- to provide another quarter of Taiwan's renewable energy.
But Shih did not offer a clear position on nuclear power, which accounts for 21 percent of Taiwan's total power production at present.
Public demand for renewable energy has been on the rise in the wake of a nuclear crisis that gripped Japan after a powerful earthquake and tsunami crippled the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in northeastern Honshu.
More than 15,000 people marched in Taipei on April 30 to oppose nuclear power, worried that Taiwan, which is as vulnerable to earthquakes as Japan, could very possibly also face the threat of a nuclear disaster.
Lee Chun-yi, a legislator of the opposition Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), suggested increasing Taiwan's liquefied natural gas (LNG) capacity to replace nuclear power, but Shih was not enthusiastic about the idea.
He said it would take six to eight years and at least NT$150 billion to replace one of Taiwan's six nuclear reactors with natural gas turbines.
Replacing the capacity of all six reactors with natural gas turbines would cost more than NT$1 trillion, and "we haven't even talked about where we will purchase the LNG from," the minister said.
"It's been a dilemma for us. If we replace nuclear power with other types of power, such as LNG, that will drive our carbon emissions up, " Shih said.
Lee countered that the public would rather face the threat of high emissions than the threat of a nuclear disaster, especially after what happened in Japan, which he said is why the DPP has proposed a "nuclear-free homeland."
Lai Shyh-bao, a legislator of the ruling Kuomintang (KMT), said that judging from public opinion, Taiwan will not likely be able to keep all four of its nuclear power plants -- three active and one still under construction.
He suggested that one possible scenario would be to retire the three operating nuclear power plants, whose reactors started operating between 1978 and 1985, and keep the new No. 4 plant.
KMT Legislator Ting Shou-chung said Wednesday he was one of a few lawmakers who could no longer support the further development of nuclear power because of heavy pressure from anti-nuclear constituencies.
Lawmakers also blasted the government for not doing enough to promote green building and energy conservation and efficiency or restructure the country's industrial base and phase out high energy-consuming industries.
Shih argued, however, that electricity prices are a major factor in making government policy on energy, and said Taiwan's extremely low prices would be a thing of the past as renewable energy capacity grew.
"The government has determined that alternative energy development is the only option and there is no looking back, " Shih said. "However, you can't expect to keep electricity prices at the current low level with all of these changes being made, " he added. (By Chris Wang and Ann Chen) Enditem/ls