Grabbing farmland for solar power, yet lenient toward industry? Ministry of Economic Affairs draft exempts 90% of major electricity users from mandatory installation of green power; civic groups criticize the policy as a step backward

Citing the goal of "20% green power share by 2025," the government has aggressively pushed solar power in agricultural and fishery zones, sparking widespread controversy, while at the same time significantly loosening the rules requiring "major electricity users" to install green power. Originally, enterprises with a contracted capacity of 800KW or more were to be required to install 10% green power, but the Ministry of Economic Affairs' new draft raises the threshold to 5,000KW or more. It was originally estimated that 5,000 major electricity users should generate one-tenth of their power themselves, but now only 500 remain, prompting outside critics to ask whether "green power takes a detour when it meets industry."

In addition, the Renewable Energy Development Act originally stipulated that government agencies should take the lead in green power, but the Ministry of Economic Affairs' draft excludes all government agencies and educational institutions, clearly conflicting with the parent law. The draft is currently in the pre-announcement period on the Public Policy Participation Platform, and environmental groups and renewable energy operators are calling for the Ministry of Economic Affairs' plan not to be hastily approved, lest it ruin the future of green power.

Kao Ju-ping, chairman of the Taiwan Renewable Energy Alliance, pointed out that this draft "fails to truly fulfill the original legislative purpose in terms of the regulated entities, the content of the obligations, and the implementation methods. It not only fails to encourage major electricity users to fulfill their corporate social responsibility, but also harms Taiwan's future green power market."

Central regulations lag behind; local governments are nowhere in sight

There are about 5,000 major electricity users nationwide, yet the draft "major electricity user clause" has been slow in coming, and the Ministry of Economic Affairs finally gave advance notice in February this year. Once the draft came out, civic groups questioned it as riddled with problems, with the biggest controversy being that the text defines "major electricity users" as those with a contracted capacity of 5,000KW or more, which was criticized as too conservative.

"When major electricity users scream, the Ministry of Economic Affairs is at a loss." Kao Ju-ping said that in the past, the definition of major electricity users under both the Bureau of Energy and local governments was a contracted capacity of 800KW. However, under pressure from industry, the Ministry of Economic Affairs actually raised the definition in this central regulation to 5,000KW, completely letting go of major electricity users between 800 and 4,999KW.

As a result, these major electricity users in the electronics, chemical, and metals industries may ignore the environmental responsibility they should bear. How can this promote the development of renewable energy in Taiwan?

Local standards require mandatory green power installation above 800KW, while the central government relaxes it to 5,000KW

Lin Mu-hsing, assistant research fellow at National Taiwan University's Risk Society and Policy Research Center, said, "The central government cannot even see the taillights of local governments." Local governments in Tainan, Taichung, and Taoyuan have long used energy mix systems to encourage enterprises within their administrative areas to generate and use their own power. For example, in 2013 the Tainan City Government used its low-carbon city autonomous ordinance to require major electricity users with a Taipower contracted capacity of 800KW or more to install solar photovoltaic power generation equipment of 10% or more; in 2016 and 2017, the Taichung City Government and the Taoyuan City Government followed suit.

The local standard is 800KW, but the central standard has been relaxed to 5,000KW. Kao Ju-ping gave an example: enterprises in Tainan with capacities between 800 and 5,000KW were originally required by the local government to install photovoltaic equipment, but now the central government says they do not have to. "Doesn't this put the central government in the position of doing wrong by local governments?"

Energy operators: originally expected 5,000 enterprises to install solar on their roofs, but suddenly only 300 remain

Renewable energy operators are also hard-pressed to hide their disappointment over the newly released draft. Chen Kun-hung, chairman of Tiantai Energy, said, "At the beginning, the threshold we heard at the public hearings was always 800KW. This issue began to be reviewed in April last year, and by the end of the year came the presidential election. There may have been some electoral pressure, which caused the originally expected requirement for those above 800KW to comply with the major electricity user clause to be gradually raised to 1,500KW and 2,000KW, and finally to 5,000KW. This also caused the number of enterprises needing to be reviewed to drop from 5,000 to 300 in an instant."

There are 5,000 major electricity users nationwide with contracted capacity exceeding 800KW, but only 500 major electricity users exceed 5,000KW, and in reality there are only about 300 enterprises. Even if all of them install renewable energy equipment with 10% capacity on their roofs within five years as required by the draft, that would amount to only 1GW.

According to estimates by the Taiwan Renewable Energy Alliance, 1GW can generate only 1.2 billion kWh of electricity, but the current 500 major electricity users are estimated to consume as much as 70 billion kWh per year. In other words, even if these enterprises all comply with the rules and install solar panels, the power they generate is still less than 2% of their actual electricity consumption.

According to statistics from the Bureau of Energy of the Ministry of Economic Affairs, in 2018 the total electricity consumption of major electricity users exceeding 800KW nationwide was 153.3 billion kWh. Now only users above 5,000KW are regulated, with electricity consumption of 70 billion kWh, less than half.

Lin Mu-hsing also pointed out that enterprises may also use lower