Taiwan’s nuclear phase-out plan by 2025 ‘more certain’: report

Nuclear power accounted for 9.5% of the power mix, as of end-2021.

The phase-out of nuclear power in Taiwan by 2025 is more certain after the December 2021 referendum ruled against restarting the Lungmen Nuclear Power Plant, Fitch Solutions reported.

The majority of voters, or 53%, voted against the development of the power plant, in line with the government’s plan to “mothball” and “potentially cancel” the power plant.

“As a result, we expect a nuclear phase-out by end-2025 to be more certain and we maintain our view that Taiwan will not experience growth in its nuclear power sector in the coming years,” the report read in part.

As of end-2021, about 9.5% of its generation mix comes from nuclear power plants.

Fitch, however, expects Taiwan to see an annual average contraction of 46% in nuclear capacity to a complete phase-out by the end of 2025 from 2.9-gigawatts at the end of 2021.

“Decommissioning nuclear power plants will also result in a nuclear power generation contraction of 27.5 terawatt-hours in end-2021 to no nuclear power generation by the start of 2026,” the report also noted.