Legislators grill Economics Minister Lee Chih-kung over ambitious green energy plan

• Report rights infringement
• published: 23 Jun 2016
• views: 40

The Economics Ministry has been actively promoting green energy, but some legislators warn that the difficulty lies in executing the ministry’s ambitious plans.To achieve the goal of a nuclear-free island, the Economics Ministry has laid out a plan which would boost the percentage of the nation’s energy supply drawn from renewable sources to 20 percent by 2025. The plan calls for significant investment in wind and solar power, but lawmakers pointed out that the ministry needs to address ongoing staff and funding concerns to put the plan into reality. To replace nuclear power, the Economics Ministry is planning to increase the portion of the nation’s total energy supply generated by renewable sources from its current 3 percent to 20 percent by 2025. The plan places increased emphasis on solar power as well as offshore wind power generation, with the ministry planning to build up to 1,000 more wind turbines. The plan calls for some of this additional green energy capacity to be paid for by foreign investment. Lee Chih-kung Economics MinisterGoogle wants to buy green energy, and we actually see this as a way for us to return to the global supply chain, and to maintain or even improve our current status there. That would represent a very important indicator.By the year 2020, some 100 offshore wind turbines are expected to be installed, but this year only four such turbines have been set up. This has led legislators to question if the plan can be executed on time, especially in light of a recently revealed problem of insufficient staffing.Hsu Yung-mingNPP LegislatorAt present, from this data I see there are only seven staff responsible for managing these wind turbines. This could be a safety concern.The Economics Ministry has been actively promoting green energy, but some legislators warn that the difficulty lies in executing the ministry’s ambitious plans.