Uncover the water-energy nexus for "Non-nuclear energy home" policy in an island- the case study of Taiwan

After the Japan Fukushima nuclear disaster in 2011, Taiwan is also concerned about nuclear safety with its fragile island topography. To consider the sustainable development of the environment and nuclear safety, Taiwan's new... [ view full abstract ]

After the Japan Fukushima nuclear disaster in 2011, Taiwan is also concerned about nuclear safety with its fragile island topography. To consider the sustainable development of the environment and nuclear safety, Taiwan's new government has announced to move towards non-nuclear energy home policy and coastal nuclear power plants will be decommissioned in the near future. A high proportion of gas-fired power generation with part of the renewable energy generation will replace nuclear power generation. The gas-fired power plant will be built inland due to lack of suitable sites along the coast. In the meanwhile, the availability of water resource in the inland watersheds highlights the water-energy nexus issues because of the large amount of water resource required for power generation. The International Energy Agency and the UN Water urged on the consideration of water-energy nexus particularly under the impact of climate change. This study applies the resource incremental risk approach to assess the water incremental risk in terms of the non-nuclear energy home policy. The result shows that water incremental risk (in WI symbol) exceeds 1 (WI = 1.42) indicating that the electricity sector will face water supply risk in that case. In addition, the electricity sector in the face of water shortage will similarly result in reduction of electricity generation with 12,185.35 Megawatt hours (MWh), which occupied the share of 3.8% of the total electricity production for the target year. The suggested solution to the risk of water shortages is the innovation for dry cooling technology in the gas-fired power plant.