From Green Energy Governance to Green Economy: A Case Study of a County in Southern Taiwan, 2009-2013

After a lot of negotiations, conducted by Ping-Tung Government in Southern Taiwan, among solar PV companies, Tai-power Company, Central Government and local farmers, 25MW solar farms were installed on the damaged lands of orchards and fish farms in Lin-Bian and Jia-Dong, two towns in central Ping-Tung, in which the government carried on post-disaster reconstruction in the wake of Typhoon Morakot on 8^th August 2009. Meanwhile, under these highly ground-mounted solar panels, there were organic vegetable farming and ecological fish farming set up. Inspired by the example of agricultural/solar farms in Lin-Bian and Jia-Dong, companies of various green energies came to Ping-Tung in search of different socio-technical experiments.

Since April 2013, a hydrogen fuel cell company has allied itself with local B&Bs, gas stations and convenience stores, offering 80 hydrogen-powered scooters to promote a "low-carbon tour." Now, this company is preparing to get fuel cell scooters into mass production. Meanwhile, small-scale wind turbines are planned to be installed in central Ping-Tung, together with the existent solar farms and hydrogen fuel cell systems, to conduct a ‘smart grid’ experiment, which has been listed in the ‘Smarter Cities Challenge, 2013’ by IBM Company. Also, in northern Ping-Tung, there is another ‘smart grid’ plan to connect solar farms, wind farms, bio-gas powers from pig farms, and micro hydropower systems.

The author of this paper has investigated and analyzed the performance of green energy in Ping-Tung by means of participative-observations and in-depth interviews. More specifically, adopting the concepts of green energy governance, social innovation, green economy and STS, this paper describes and explains the socio-technical mechanisms and meanings of green energy in Ping-Tung, with a focus on a variety of human and non-human actors such as the green-energy team in Ping-Tung Government, green-energy companies, local entrepreneurs, NGOs, and local communities.