Taiwan to ramp up gas imports after shuttering last nuclear plant

[ilamont]

Hard to believe the DPP followed through with this plan, especially in light of the aggressive "exercises" by the PLA in recent years.

What's the opportunity for solar? Abundant sunshine most of the year, declining interest in family farming.

Taiwan has offshore wind power, but the cost is twice as much as renewables:

Taiwan’s offshore wind projects are paid for by Corporate Power Purchase Agreements (CPPAs) from large tech companies. They might be willing to pay above and beyond the usual price for the renewable energy they need for their supply chain commitments, but they are balking at paying what the offshore wind industry says they will need to sustain the Taiwan projects, above NTD$5 per kilowatt hour. That is almost twice as much as the rates they usually pay through Taipower for non-renewable energy.

https://english.cw.com.tw/article/article.action?id=3623

[arthurz]

Just want to recommend Apocalypse Never, a book I am finishing reading. The author explains the faulty logic behind decommissioning Nuclear as a source of power very eloquently. Big mistake.

[gpm]

> especially in light of the aggressive "exercises" by the PLA in recent years.

As we've seen with Russia targeting them in Ukraine, nuclear plants are the last thing you want around during a war.

[YaleE360]

Having shuttered its last nuclear plant on Saturday, Taiwan is pivoting toward natural gas. Critics say the move will leave Taiwan more reliant on imported fuels and more vulnerable to a blockade by China.

[thijson]

This move sort of parallels what Germany did in the last decade or so, and we can already see how that worked out for them. I remember seeing research in Japan about extracting Uranium from sea water. It's not very economically feasible, but it's still possible, and can't be blockaded. With breeding and reprocessing, reactor fuel can be used for much longer than it currently is.

[WillPostForFood]

Big win for the environmental movement, big loss for the environment.

[CamperBob2]

Whether it's a net win or loss probably depends on where they were buying their nuclear fuel. E.g., from Russia? I don't imagine Taiwan has a lot of uranium mines.

In the event of conflict with China, they can buy LNG from any number of sources, unlike uranium.

[Apocryphon]

It's the end for this nuclear plant, but it appears that Taiwan is looking to build advanced modular reactors in the future:

"NARI launches NT$100m nuclear technology project"

https://www.taipeitimes.com/News/taiwan/archives/2025/05/12/...

[ktgkdodfm]

Lots of countries are "looking to" building modular reactors, but it's in very much in the we'll see -phase. From the article I can't really spot any concrete plans for materializing this looking to into action

[porphyra]

That's like USD $3m. Good luck building anything nuclear for that budget.

[mlinhares]

The stupidity if relinquishing your own freedom for nothing is unbelievable.

[cedws]

Taiwan is facing a potential invasion. As demonstrated in the Ukraine invasion, NPPs can become high value targets, a bargaining chip, and a base of operations.

[jldugger]

What were the reasons cited for shutting it down? I could see "the earthquake risk is too big and the island too small if things go bad" as a justification.

[ninetyninenine]

Nothing out of the norm. Just look at the united states to see plenty more stupidity. Also see China and every other country.

[perihelions]

Another facet of this is that current US foreign policy sort of coerces Taiwan into buying American natural gas. Not the only factor, but I think a major one going forwards (unless trade policy randomly flips again).

i.e.

https://www.reuters.com/markets/asia/taiwan-plans-response-t... ("Taiwan plans response to Trump tariffs with energy imports, tariff cuts")

https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/taiwan-says-trump... ("Taiwan could buy $200 billion more from US, increase LNG imports as part of trade deal")

> "Asked about raising the proportion of Taiwan's imports of liquefied natural gas (LNG) from the United States from 10% to 30% of the total, Kuo said that was the "direction" being eyed."

> "Most of Taiwan's LNG now comes from Australia and Qatar."

[onemoresoop]

What would it take to keep the current nuclear plan up and running while also importing gas? Having more energy could be used productively for their industries

[nayuki]

Similar to Germany, huh.

[skrause]

Germany isn't ramping up gas imports, it's replacing both nuclear and coal with renewables.

And even though gas power plants are the designated backup power plants for times when there is neither enough sun nor wind, this doesn't actually happen often enough that you need even more gas. So gas consumtion in Germany is actually projected to decline by at least 50% until 2040 [0].

[0] https://www.spiegel.de/wirtschaft/energie-nachfrage-nach-gas...

[NoMoreNicksLeft]

I do wonder if this might actually be some sort of effort by China. With the closing of this last plant, the door is closed on Taiwan ever developing nuclear weapons. They've been infiltrating Taiwan ever since 1947, who knows what pressure such agents have had over the years. Quite possibly enough to shift policy in this direction.

[9283409232]

This seems like a very poor move given their issues with China. I don't know what renewables other than nuclear favor Taiwan's environment.

[slashdev]

Taiwan relying on energy imports is a major strategic weakness.

People think China will invade Taiwan. I think they’ll just put it under siege until it surrenders.

[Ericson2314]

Very sad :(. Normally very happy about things the DPP does, but not this.

Korea is close by, and they make them pretty cheap and fast also.

[philwelch]

The DPP talks a big game about resisting a Chinese takeover but they are comically ineffectual about realistically preparing to do so.

[fakedang]

Big brain moment here.