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Short abstract:

Torn between its past and a technoscientific future, Taiwanese society is redefining its identity through different narratives: Indigenous, Taiwanese and Chinese. By charting the relationship between indigenous peoples and RES, this study reveals the complex nature of Taiwan's energy transition.

Long abstract:

As a world leader in advanced semiconductor production, Taiwan provides stability to the digital world, while being at the forefront of global uncertainties related to the US-China-rivalry. As an island on the edge of the Pacific Ocean, it is also severely affected by climate change. Torn between a past and a technoscientific future, its society is redefining its identity based on different narratives: Indigenous, Taiwanese and Chinese.

With limited land, water and energy resources, Taiwan's energy system - especially with its commitments to carbon reduction plans - faces many challenges, such as balancing the growing demand for energy and resources to develop the semiconductor industry. One of the ways to increase the number of renewable sources is to tap the potential of geothermal energy and the land (PV or wind) to produce it in the south-eastern province of Taitung - inhabited by several indigenous tribes, making it the site of the first conflict between a company investing in PV and the indigenous people.

This work illustrates moments of clash between different imagined legal and epistemological orders. The first case study illustrates the construction of a geothermal power plant in indigenous territory, but with the cooperation of the local tribe. The second is an investment by a private company in indigenous territory without any cooperation with the local tribe. The third is an indigenous energy cooperative aimed at meeting energy needs. The fourth is a PV investment in the Zhiben wetlands that was stopped by the local tribe, NGOs and lawyers.