Curbing the Chaos of Solar Power on Farmland: Chen Baoji Says Power Generation Permits Will Be Revoked Without Agricultural Operation
After Council of Agriculture Minister Chen Bao-ji recently put forward a proposal to amend the law to clean up the chaos surrounding farmhouses, he turned to the chaos of solar farming on farmland that has appeared in central and southern Taiwan, China in recent years. Council of Agriculture Minister Chen Bao-ji publicly declared yesterday that "farming electricity on farmland" must be combined with agricultural operations and that it cannot be just generating and selling electricity. He has already demanded at the national meeting of agriculture heads that each county and city strictly step up inspections. If agricultural facilities on farmland have no agricultural operations and rely only on power generation and electricity sales for revenue, the green energy facility's "permitted use permit for facilities on non-urban land" will be revoked and power generation terminated.
In October 2013, after the Council of Agriculture amended the "Regulations Governing the Review of Applications for Permitted Use of Agricultural Land for Agricultural Facilities," relaxing the rules so that agricultural production facilities in special agricultural zones and general agricultural zones could apply to install ancillary green energy facilities, photovoltaic greenhouses under the banner of "farming electricity on farmland" sprang up like bamboo shoots after rain in agricultural areas of central and southern Taiwan, China in less than two years. Many photovoltaic greenhouses occupied prime farmland without engaging in agricultural operations and relied only on selling solar power to Taiwan Power Company to earn income, which not only triggered the controversy of "fake agriculture, real electricity farming," but also squeezed out the farmland needs of those who genuinely farm.
After NewsMarket revealed the chaos of farming electricity on farmland last November, the Council of Agriculture, after more than half a year of review, decided to carry out a cleanup. Council of Agriculture Minister Chen Bao-ji, invited yesterday to "Executive Yuan Open Mic" for a discussion with netizens, stressed that the Council of Agriculture only permits actual agricultural operations combined with solar green energy generation. For example, installing solar photovoltaic panels on poultry and livestock houses is relatively uncontroversial, but if a greenhouse is to have ancillary green energy generation equipment, the operator must prove that it will not affect crop growth. The Council of Agriculture has already asked local governments to review strictly when operators submit applications.
As for the chaos of "farming electricity on farmland" with no factual agricultural operation at all, Chen Bao-ji stressed that he has already demanded at the national meeting of agriculture heads that local governments strengthen inspections. If the agricultural facility only generates electricity and has no agricultural operation, the local government may revoke the agricultural facility's "permitted use permit for facilities on non-urban land," indirectly prohibiting green energy operators from using prime farmland to farm electricity and sell power.
However, Chen Bao-ji also said that for locations such as areas of severe land subsidence or contaminated farmland, because of limited water supply, or because agricultural production activities are constrained by external environmental factors and cannot be farmed, resulting in relatively low agricultural income for farmers, such farmland may generate electricity without being combined with agricultural operations. It is roughly estimated that the area of such farmland totals about 1400 hectares.
The Council of Agriculture pointed out that because some energy operators distorted the policy on farming electricity on farmland and misled farmers into believing that the agricultural facilities they built need not be used for agriculture and could mainly consist of installed photovoltaic facilities, the Council of Agriculture once again reiterated that ancillary green energy facilities must not affect agricultural operations, and sent letters to county and city governments to strengthen the review process for agricultural facilities that should be used for agriculture, so as to prevent situations of "using the name of fake agricultural operations to carry out electricity farming in reality" from occurring.
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