Taiwan should reverse its traditional approach to industrial planning by locating artificial intelligence (AI) and other power-intensive industries where electricity and grid capacity are already available, an energy executive said yesterday.“In the past, electricity followed industry, but in the future, industry should follow electricity,” Fabulous Power Co (結元能源) general manager Sam Hung (洪向民) said at the New Energy Forum in Taipei.Hung said AI and high-tech industries should develop in areas where power plants, generation sources and grid resources have already been planned, rather than continuing the practice of establishing industrial parks first and then rushing to build power infrastructure nearby.
High-voltage electricity transmission towers are pictured in New Taipei City’s Sijhih District on Sept. 19 last year.
The proposal came as Hung and fellow panelist Kelsey Kuan (關婷怡) discussed the challenge of supplying stable, low-carbon electricity while Taiwan expands renewable generation and energy-intensive AI industries.“Increasing installed capacity does not mean that the same amount of renewable electricity will be available. 24 hours a day, seven days a week,” Hung said during the panel discussion at the Business Today-organized forum.
