Placing Green Energy in the Sea: Offshore Wind Farms, Dolphins, Oysters, and the Territorial Politics of the Intertidal Zone in Taiwan

Abstract

The development of offshore wind farms has been a way for the state to repackage national development projects using green energy discourses. In Taiwan, where the further development of nuclear power is suspended due to public antinuclear sentiment, offshore wind farms have been heavily promoted as a way of meeting electricity demand. The planned site for offshore wind farms, mainly the intertidal zone along the coast of Changhua County, overlaps with both oyster farms and the habitat of Taiwanese humpbacked dolphins, categorized as a critically endangered species by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. This has resulted in a clash between conserving the oyster farming landscape, protecting an endangered species, and developing green energy. Facing this dilemma, pro–wind farm discourses that highlight concerns about global climate change have gradually supplanted those stressing the welfare of oysters and dolphins, even though the latter have been used successfully as local icons by movements opposing previous development projects on the intertidal zone. This article reconsiders the politics of territorialization implied by the “green” label affixed to offshore wind farm projects and other forms of green energy in general. As such, the meaning of offshore wind farms, as a newly discovered energy resource, is intertwined with the changing meanings of both dolphins and oyster farms, as rival nonhuman objects of resource exploitation and natural conservation. The territorialization of such resources in the emerging discursive space of green energy has proceeded via relational placemaking with nonlinear connections among multiple human and nonhuman elements. Key Words: conservation, intertidal zone, landscape, renewable resources, resource frontier.

离岸风力发电厂的建设，一向是政府运用绿能论述重新包装国家发展计画的方式。在台湾，核能发电的未来发展，因公众的反核情绪而遭到悬置，离岸风力发电厂于是被大力提倡作为满足电力需求的方案。离岸风力发电厂的规划地点，主要是沿着彰化县沿海的潮间带，并与牡蛎养殖场和台湾白海豚此一被世界自然保育联盟归类为极度濒危的物种之栖地相互重叠。这导致了保育牡蛎养殖地景、保护濒危物种，以及发展绿能之间的冲突。面对此一困境，强调全球气候变迁考量的风力发电厂支持论述，逐渐取代强调牡蛎和海豚福祉的论述，即便后者曾被成功运用作为过往潮间带发展计画反对运动之地方象徵。本文重思附在离岸风力发电计画上的“绿色”标籤之再领域化政治意涵，以及其他一般的绿能形式。于此，作为新发掘能源资源的离岸风力发电厂之意义，与海豚和牡蛎养殖场改变中的意义相互交缠，作为资源剥削与自然保育的竞争性非人类物件。在浮现中的绿能论述空间中，此般资源的领域化，已通过关係系性地方打造和多重人类与非人类元素间的非线性连结进行之。关键词：保育，潮间带，地景，可再生资源，资源前沿。

El desarrollo de centrales eoeléctricas marinas ha sido una alternativa del estado para reinventar proyectos de desarrollo nacional usando los discursos de la energía verde. En Taiwán, donde el desarrollo adicional de energía nuclear está suspendido debido al sentimiento público antinuclear, las centrales eoeléctricas marinas han sido fuertemente promovidas como medio para enfrentar la demanda de electricidad. El lugar planeado para establecer estas centrales eoeléctricas marinas, principalmente la zona intermareal a lo largo del litoral del Condado Changhua, traslapa tanto las piscifactorías de ostras como el hábitat de los delfines jorobados taiwaneses, categorizados como especie críticamente amenazada por la Unión Internacional para la Conservación de la Naturaleza. Esto ha resultado en un conflicto entre las opciones de mantener el paisaje del cultivo de ostras, proteger una especie amenazada y desarrollar energía verde. Enfrentando este dilema, los discursos en favor de las centrales eoeléctricas marinas, que destacan la preocupación por el cambio climático global, gradualmente han suplantado las opiniones que destacan el bienestar de ostras y delfines, si bien los últimos han sido usados exitosamente como íconos locales por los movimientos opuestos a proyectos anteriores de desarrollo en la zona de mareas. Este artículo reconsidera la política de territorialización implicada por la etiqueta “verde” que se les endilga a los proyectos de las centrales eoeléctricas marinas, y, en general, a otras formas de energía verde. De por sí, el significado de las centrales eoeléctricas marinas, como recurso energético recientemente descubierto, se entrelaza con las significaciones cambiantes tanto de las piscifactorías de ostras como de los delfines, como objetos rivales no humanos de explotación y conservación del recurso natural. La territorialización de tales recursos en el espacio discursivo emergente de la energía verde ha proseguido vía la producción de espacio relacional con conexiones no lineales entre múltiples elementos humanos y no humanos. Palabras clave: conservación, frontera de recursos, paisaje, recursos renovables, zona intermareal.

Acknowledgments

I thank Shuo-Bin Su, Yu-Ju Chien, and all of the other research team members, who worked together in rethinking the changing intertidal zone of Changhua. Thanks for the helpful comments from the anonymous reviewers. An earlier version of this work was presented at the 2018 Annual Meeting of the American Association of Geographers, and I thank the session participants for their comments. Particularly for people from my field research, I thank those who provided me with their insights and experiences concerning the changing landscape of the intertidal zone in Taiwan. All errors remain mine.

Note

Notes

1 The DPP lost in the county magistrate election of Changhua County on 24 November 2018, and Kuomintang (KMT) now runs the county government. Whereas the DPP central government of Taiwan has still strongly promoted the offshore wind farm construction in Changhua County, the current county government of KMT has been ambivalent toward the future development of green energy in Changhua.

Additional information

Funding

This article is part of a research project supported by the Ministry of Science and Education, Taiwan (Grant No. 106-2420-H-002-003). This work was also financially supported by the NTU Research Center for Future Earth (NTU-107L9010) from The Featured Area Research Center Program within the framework of the Higher Education Sprout Project by the Ministry of Education in Taiwan.

Notes on contributors

Po-Yi Hung

PO-YI HUNG is an Associate Professor in the Department of Geography at National Taiwan University, Taipei 10617, Taiwan. E-mail: [email protected]. His research interests include nature–society relations, food and agriculture, and frontier and territory, particularly in Taiwan, China, and Southeast Asia.