The Implementation of Renewable Energy Policy in Taiwan: A Case of Aqua Solar Farm in Pingtung
Date Issued
2012
Date
2012
Author(s)
Lee, Yen-Chang
Abstract
The Renewable Energy Development Act was approved in 2009 in order to facilitate growth of the renewable energy industry and to create opportunities for economic and technological development in Taiwan. However, after almost three years the renewable energy industry has rarely grown. As many green sectors have criticized, the central government neither actively implemented the Act nor proposed the related policies. The worse part is that the government has further allowed the government-owned Taiwan Power Company to impede the development of the renewable energy industry. As a result, the implementation of the Renewable Energy Development Act and the related policies are in need of further examination, and this thesis aims to point out their problems by analyzing the case of the “Aqua Solar Farm” program in Pingtung County.
After Pingtung County was severely destroyed by the Typhoon Morakot in 2009, the county government collaborated with the solar power companies, and proposed the “Aqua Solar Farm” program to transform the local industries (the aquacultural industry and the agricultural industry) and to solve problems of the groundwater extraction by these industries. These solar power companies rented lands from farmers in Linbian Town and Jiaton Town and set up the Photovoltaic system (PV system) to generate electric power. The companies then sold the power to the Taiwan Power Company and in return provided local farmers with rents for the lands and opportunities of employment which could transform these farmers’ ways of living. The program was initiated in 2010 under the cooperation between the county government and solar power companies. However, at the end of the year 2010 before the county government signed the contract with these companies, the Bureau of Energy officially required these companies to complete the system construction as soon as possible. The Bureau of Energy was suspicious that these companies intended to delay the construction to benefit from the energy price fluctuation in the international market. As a result, the “Aqua Solar Farm” program was eventually stopped.
Taking the “Aqua Solar Farm Program” as the case study, the thesis first depicts the political and economic context of the program as well as important decisions made by different actors during the policy formation through the in-depth interview and the literature analysis method. Meanwhile, from the perspective of “Policy Implementation”, which includes “Disposition of Actors”, “Resource Allocation Sufficiency”, “Willingness of Participation”, “Organizational Observation” and “Suitability of Regulation”, the thesis also analyzes the effect of the policy implementation. Finally, based on the above analyses, the thesis proposes concrete policy suggestions for the renewable energy policy in Taiwan.
Based on the analysis, the thesis find that the implementation of the renewable energy policy is closely related to the “Disposition of Actors”. Both the central and local political leaders are the key factors in determining the successful implementation of the policy. The central government has the power to allocate resources and set up related regulations, and it would be hard for them to support a policy if they cannot benefit from the policy. As the “Aqua Solar Farm” program has shown, the policy was stopped owing to the change of the FIT rate by the official order. Therefore, the central government’s intervention in the program has impaired companies’ interests and local people’s rights. On the other hand, the head of the Pingtung County Mr. TSAO Chi-Hung supported the “Aqua Solar Farm” program for his personal interests and further collaborated with companies to initiate the program. They hoped to transform the local industries via the renewable energy industry and ease problems of the groundwater extraction.
The implementation of the energy policy in Taiwan is based on the “highly central concentrated management”, which needs supports from the leader’s will power. Thus, the “Aqua Solar Farm” program is not only promoted by the local government but in fact affected by the central government’s decision. If the central government would not like to promote the policy, the implementation could be cancelled only through an official order. Unfortunately, the interests and rights of companies and the local citizens were impeded and the credibility of the government’s policy was decreased. This is a “top-down” mode of the policy implementation, in which the decision makers from the central can overrule the policy executed by the local government. In sum, the policy implementation is decided according to the top’s disposition, and the lower then can only tries best to support the top’s decision.
Subjects
Aqua Solar Farm
policy implementation
renewable energy policy
SDGs
Type
thesis
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