News Briefing

 

Academia Sinica, led by its President James C. Liao, and related personnel, released the "Taiwan Net Zero Technology Research and Development Policy Proposal" on November 30. This policy emphasizes the promotion of technology as its core. It also suggests carbon reduction from the end of power generation, so that we can "create enough zero-carbon electricity" – one of the top priorities for the net zero strategies of our country.

 

Impact Analysis

 

According to the proposal contents, the development strategy of net zero technology can be classified as "quickest promotion", "expanded promotion", "continuous promotion" and "close tracking." Amongst them, the areas to be found in “quickest promotion” include decarbonized hydrogen combustion, geothermal, ocean energy, high-efficiency solar photovoltaics, and biomass carbon sinks. Areas to be found in “expanded promotion” include wind power generation, emerging biomass energy, and supports of the power system. Areas to be found in “continuous promotion” include traditional biomass energy, hydraulic power generation, traditional carbon capture, utilization, and storage (CCUS), and natural carbon sinks (agriculture and forestry), whereas the areas to be found in “close tracking” include future nuclear technologies and emerging CCUS technologies.

 

The proposal has also optimistically estimated that with all the technologies in place, the supply of de-carbonized electricity should reach about 586.5 billion kWh by 2050 in its preliminary estimation. Amongst the categories of power generation, wind power and solar photovoltaics should account for 39%, de-carbonized hydrogen combustion 27%, and geothermal/ocean/hydraulic/biomass/imported hydrogen 34%, which can almost accommodate the estimated total power demand as 587.6 billion kWh.

 

An adequate sufficient supply of de-carbonized electricity has always been of concern to the PCB industry, and the contents of the policy proposal by Academia Sinica have focused on the direction of energy technology. Even though there are still many challenges to be overcome in the process, the results of the trial calculation between the balance of supply and demand can, as far as planning is concerned, be most helpful to boost the confidence of the industry. As such, the delivery of such a proposal should render much positive significance concerning the overall green power environment in Taiwan at this point in time when all levels of society are paying high attention to the issue of net zero issues.

 

Proportion of decarbonized power generation in Taiwan in 2050

Source: National Chung-Shan Institute of Science & Technology