Taiwan's War on Renewables [Fully Produced Radio Show!]

Welcome to another installment of the ChinaTalk radio show! Today, we’re diving into Taiwan’s war on green energy. Shenanigans abound in this episode, including: The lights-out scenario — Taiwan only holds 11 days of LNG reserves, and 97% of the island's energy is imported, but the ruling party phased out nuclear and botched the renewable rollout anyway. The offshore wind graveyard — how made-in-Taiwan components drove developers to abandon the world's best offshore wind sites, The Taipower unbundling reversal — and the Kafkaesque system that keeps electricity prices dirt cheap despite the Iran war. “Green energy cockroaches” — why corruption is Taiwan's dirtiest secret, and how the Taiwanese public came to associate renewables with scandal, The nuclear U-turn — How President Lai Ching-te walked back forty years of "Non-Nuclear Homeland" orthodoxy to restart Taiwan’s nuclear reactors. A transcript of this show with embedded source links is available on the ChinaTalk substack. This episode was produced by Lily Ottinger and Aqib Zakaria. Special thanks to "Jason Feng," Angelica Oung, Ricky Huang, Tsaiying Lu (DSET), and Yu-Hsuan Yeh (formerly of CSIS and DSET) for their time and expertise. Everyone's views are their own and don't represent any organization. If you want to learn more, check out Angelica's ongoing work on her two Substacks, Taipology and Elemental Energy. You can also check out Ricky's two podcasts, where he hosts cross-partisan debates about energy policy and more. "Jason's" voice was anonymized with ElevenLabs' text-to-speech tools. Finally, we know Angelica is a controversial figure, but we decided to interview her because, on energy policy specifically, her views are shared by a not-insubstantial portion of the Taiwanese public. [See: this poll which reported that 59% of the Taiwanese public didn't feel confident that Lai’s administration could protect Taiwan from power outages, and this poll from June 2025 that shows a near-even split in public opinion for and against the non-nuclear homeland policy.] Outro song lyrics: 「燈火 Taiwan」 (Lights of Taiwan) [Verse 1] The AC stopped humming on August day eight Aunties in the market, no fan on their face Eleven days of gas, forty-two of coal Then the island goes dark, and the story gets old O-lóng-mn̂g, o-lóng-mn̂g (黑黑暗暗, pitch black) We knew this would come, but we looked away [Pre-Chorus] Forty years they said hūi-hi̍k (非核, non-nuclear) Forty years of dreaming we could wish it all away But the strait is a wind tunnel, and the sun still shines While we burned the future for cheaper times [Chorus] Góa ê kò͘-hiong, lí kám ū thêng-thāu? (我的故鄉, 你敢有聽著? — My homeland, can you hear?) The Franken-reactor sleeps beneath the hill Crystal Yang drank the water, but the people got ill Góa ê kò͘-hiong, lí ài kiàⁿ-khí-lâi (我的故鄉, 你愛起來 — My homeland, you must rise) Not nuclear OR green — we need both to survive [Verse 2] Round 3.1, Round 3.2, localization chains RWE went home, EnBW felt the pain Yunlin's turbines turning, three times the cost While the lūi-chhù (綠能蟑螂, green cockroaches) ate what we lost Behind the meter, batteries wait Zero price auction — we sealed our own fate [Pre-Chorus] Taipower's black box, CPI's lie TSMC pays more so the auntie don't cry But the data centers can't grow, AI waits at the door While we argue if nuclear is sin or chó͘ (善或惡, good or evil) [Chorus] Góa ê kò͘-hiong, lí kám ū thêng-thāu? The Franken-reactor sleeps beneath the hill Crystal Yang drank the water, but the people got ill Góa ê kò͘-hiong, lí ài kiàⁿ-khí-lâi Not nuclear OR green — we need both to survive [Bridge] (Spoken, over soft piano) March 22nd, 2026 Lai Ching-te said the words nobody wanted to hear Kò͘-hiong needs power Not slogans, not pride, not forty years of fear [Final Chorus] Góa ê kò͘-hiong, lí kám ū thêng-thāu? The blockade is coming, the Hormuz is closed Spot market gas at 140% — who knows? Góa ê kò͘-hiong, lí ài kiàⁿ-khí-lâi Distributed and hardened, let the sun and wind rise With nuclear beside them — open both your eyes [Outro] O-lóng-mn̂g, mài koh o-lóng-mn̂g (黑黑暗暗, 莫閣黑黑暗暗 — Darkness, don't be dark again) Kiàⁿ-khí-lâi, Tâi-oân (起來, 台灣 — Rise up, Taiwan) Kiàⁿ-khí-lâi... ChinaTalk is an audience-supported publication. If you'd like to help us produce more content like this, please consider a paid subscription on Substack. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices