Energy Transition in East Asia by Kuei-Tien Chou

Author:Kuei-Tien Chou [Chou, Kuei-Tien]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781138065741
Barnesnoble:
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Published: 2017-12-04T00:00:00+00:00

3 The export-oriented mindset of economic growth

Following tradition, Taiwan’s state-guided developmentalists constantly seek out the next competitive sector to nurture. Due to Taiwan’s small market size, export-oriented developmentalism, which operates through the strategic selection of potentially successful business sectors, has also limited energy transition. Rather than treating energy transition as an opportunity for growth and the realization of a more sustainable economic model, the government sees renewable energy as a ‘commodity’ for export. For example, Taiwan is second only to China in the production of solar panels. Yet, despite the high level of solar technology in Taiwan, the implementation of solar energy island-wide remains limited. Surprisingly, although 95% of the solar energy generated in Taiwan is exported, it only represents less than 1% of the total amount of energy generated.10

The process to produce solar panels is not only carbon-intensive, but also, the export-oriented manufacturing of solar panels is detrimental to the sustainability of Taiwan’s energy structure. In fact, since solar panels are only produced for export, there is neither need nor room to seek collaboration with local communities and civil society to facilitate renewable energy agendas.

In sum, long-term centralized developmentalism has made the Taiwanese government more reluctant to embrace a more dispersed, equal, and citizen-based power generation system. Therefore, the social innovation of renewables, as a flag of energy democratization, thus poses a direct challenge to the black box sealed by technocracy and the existing energy-intensive sectors.

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