**2. The rise of energy-driven demand for farmland in Taiwan**

Taiwan enacted the *Act of Renewable Energ*y in the year 2009 which promotes energy safety, green economy, and a sustainable environment. The targeted proportion of electricity generated by renewable energy is set to be 20% by the year 2025 where solar power will account for 20 GW. Researchers rightly pointed out that one critical issue associated with renewable energy is the siting of energygenerating facilities [7]. Renewable energy such as wind turbines and photovoltaic installations cannot generate electricity 24 hours a day due to intermittent wind or total lack of sunlight in the night, respectively. As a result, the acreage of land needed for one unit of electricity generated by renewable energy tends to be larger than for conventional installations of power generation, such as nuclear plants and water reservoirs. The feasibility of renewable energy to become the dominant supply of energy in Taiwan by the year 2025 to a large extent has become an issue of land use. In spite of the land-consuming nature of solar power, the potential vertical multiple uses of land lessen the severity of mass consumption of land. It has been suggested that certain types of crops or vegetation can be grown underneath the solar panels without loss of much productivity. This way of agricultural production presents a way of inclusive instead of exclusive use of land. As far as solar power is concerned, Taiwan government has set a target for the year 2025 of 3 GW generation from solar panels on rooftops and 17 GW from solar panels on the ground (see **Figures 1** and **2**). Given the assumption of 10 m<sup>2</sup> of space needed

**49**

30 km<sup>2</sup>

**Figure 2.**

**Figure 1.**

*boundaries.*

*The Effects of Green Energy Production on Farmland: A Case Study in Yunlin County, Taiwan*

*(a-b): Typical mounted photovoltaic arrays in central Yunlin. (a) Dense spacing of solar modules do not allow for mixed land use. (b) Inactive and probably hypersaline farmland, note irrigation channels at farmland* 

*DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.85906*

for one rooftop solar panel and 15 m<sup>2</sup>

*farms are based on a recent remote-sensing data survey and field observations.*

of rooftop and 255 km<sup>2</sup>

of space for one ground solar panel, a total of

of

of ground are, respectively, required island-wide.

In order to attain the targeted figure of energy generation, several priority sites have been identified for installation of solar panels in the 2-year initiative of solar panels proposed by the *Bureau of Energy of the Ministry of Economic Affairs*. The identified preferable location for rooftop panels are on top of state-owned buildings, factories, other buildings, and agricultural production facilities. In addition, the identified preferable sites for ground panels are sites of the salt industry, landfill and contaminated land, severe subsidence areas, and water bodies. Under a rather optimistic scenario assumed in the 2-year initiative of solar panels, 41.34 km<sup>2</sup>

*Sites of energy generation in the Yunlin County, locations and spatial density of rooftop and ground-based solar* 

space is thought to be supplied on the rooftop of all public buildings, and that could theoretically generate up to 4.1 GW of electricity. One study arrived at a potential total amount of 26.43 GW power generation contributed by solar panels on the ground surface [8]. This figure is based upon the assumption of full usage

*The Effects of Green Energy Production on Farmland: A Case Study in Yunlin County, Taiwan DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.85906*

#### **Figure 1.**

*Land Use Change and Sustainability*

energy (biomass, hydroelectricity, photovoltaic, and wind). The installed national capacities, however, covered 5276 MW of energy in 2017 with 39% conventional hydroelectric energy, 34% photovoltaic energy, and 13% wind energy [3]. Due to the dependence on energy imports from other countries as well as a change of direction with respect to the implementation of a green energy policy, the government is

The county of Yunlin in central Taiwan is one of the areas in which green energy projects are being developed leading to a successive change of the landscape with potential long-term effects on the farmers and farmland. Together with Chiayi County in the south, Yunlin County is located in the Chianan alluvial plain built by sediments connected to the Alishan mountain range in central Taiwan. As such the plains are characterized by farmland agriculture predominantly focused on rice, sugarcane, peanuts, and corn as well as sweet potato. In Yunlin County farmland covers about 68% of the total area. A high density of fish ponds are found along Yunlin's coast with aqua culture focused on, e.g., clams and tilapia. However, Yunlin County has been suffering from structural problems over the last decade which are related to anthropogenically caused subsidence of the land (likely) due to excessive groundwater pumping. Apart from potential destabilization of the high-speed rail construction (**Figure 2**), it causes structural problems on buildings and potentially

Due to the gently sloping plains of the Yunlin alluvium, rivers contribute a significant amount of hydroelectric energy. Yunlin County hosts the third largest coal power plants in Taiwan, the Mailiao Power Plant (**Figure 2**), with a total capacity of 4200 MW distributed over 7 units [5]. Wind energy has become an important topic with the conceptualization of a number of on- and offshore wind turbines recently. Currently, Yunlin hosts less than 20 coastal onshore wind turbines which constitute no more than 5% of the national wind turbines in operation. With these, a capacity of about 35 MW can be estimated. However, recent investor agreements in late 2018 consolidated plans

Taiwan enacted the *Act of Renewable Energ*y in the year 2009 which promotes

for setting up an offshore farm with a capacity of 8x80 MW [6] (cf. **Figure 2**).

energy safety, green economy, and a sustainable environment. The targeted proportion of electricity generated by renewable energy is set to be 20% by the year 2025 where solar power will account for 20 GW. Researchers rightly pointed out that one critical issue associated with renewable energy is the siting of energygenerating facilities [7]. Renewable energy such as wind turbines and photovoltaic installations cannot generate electricity 24 hours a day due to intermittent wind or total lack of sunlight in the night, respectively. As a result, the acreage of land needed for one unit of electricity generated by renewable energy tends to be larger than for conventional installations of power generation, such as nuclear plants and water reservoirs. The feasibility of renewable energy to become the dominant supply of energy in Taiwan by the year 2025 to a large extent has become an issue of land use. In spite of the land-consuming nature of solar power, the potential vertical multiple uses of land lessen the severity of mass consumption of land. It has been suggested that certain types of crops or vegetation can be grown underneath the solar panels without loss of much productivity. This way of agricultural production presents a way of inclusive instead of exclusive use of land. As far as solar power is concerned, Taiwan government has set a target for the year 2025 of 3 GW generation from solar panels on rooftops and 17 GW from solar panels on

**2. The rise of energy-driven demand for farmland in Taiwan**

the ground (see **Figures 1** and **2**). Given the assumption of 10 m<sup>2</sup>

of space needed

actively encouraging and supporting developments in this domain.

a significant salinization of farmland (e.g., [4]).

**48**

*(a-b): Typical mounted photovoltaic arrays in central Yunlin. (a) Dense spacing of solar modules do not allow for mixed land use. (b) Inactive and probably hypersaline farmland, note irrigation channels at farmland boundaries.*

#### **Figure 2.**

*Sites of energy generation in the Yunlin County, locations and spatial density of rooftop and ground-based solar farms are based on a recent remote-sensing data survey and field observations.*

for one rooftop solar panel and 15 m<sup>2</sup> of space for one ground solar panel, a total of 30 km<sup>2</sup> of rooftop and 255 km<sup>2</sup> of ground are, respectively, required island-wide.

In order to attain the targeted figure of energy generation, several priority sites have been identified for installation of solar panels in the 2-year initiative of solar panels proposed by the *Bureau of Energy of the Ministry of Economic Affairs*. The identified preferable location for rooftop panels are on top of state-owned buildings, factories, other buildings, and agricultural production facilities. In addition, the identified preferable sites for ground panels are sites of the salt industry, landfill and contaminated land, severe subsidence areas, and water bodies. Under a rather optimistic scenario assumed in the 2-year initiative of solar panels, 41.34 km<sup>2</sup> of space is thought to be supplied on the rooftop of all public buildings, and that could theoretically generate up to 4.1 GW of electricity. One study arrived at a potential total amount of 26.43 GW power generation contributed by solar panels on the ground surface [8]. This figure is based upon the assumption of full usage

of particular types of state-owned land (salt industry land, reservoir, detention basin, landfill, etc.) and 20% of devotion of farmland to the installation of solar panels. The authors, nevertheless, highlighted the possible conflicts between energy production and environmental protection and food security, to mention a few of them. For example, high-quality farmland that enjoys a full exposure to sunlight also tends to be well suited for solar panel installation. In this context, the counties of Changhua (彰化), Tainan (台南), Yunlin (雲林), and Chiayi (嘉義) have been promoted as priority counties for the installation of solar panels to exploit longer hours of sunlight [9] (**Figure 2**).

Besides, the lack of experience and concern over environmental issues caused by the installation of solar panels will certainly lead to impacts on the farmland market, both in terms of sales price and transaction volume. The only study so far that attempted to measure the price effect of solar panels on nearby farmland was conducted by [10]. In this case study of Tainan City, no uniform price effect has been found. The farmland price might either rise or fall with the distance from the solar panels depending on the regions they are located in. However, [10] concluded with a warning saying that the rising farmland value might harm the farming production on a longer term.

The link between energy consumption and location of solar panels on farmland is already recognized: the more the reliance on renewable energy, the more it will lead to a competition among alternative land uses. However, the discussions in Taiwan so far overly simplify the provision of farmland into sites of solar panels. Their conclusions are strongly based on the rosy assumption that a certain percentage, for example, 50%, of private land owners will soon agree to enter a long-term leasehold (of at least 20 years) with an energy company.

In the leasing of farmland for installation of solar panels, the annual rent paid by the solar power company to land owners as advertised, for example, by MOTECH [11], is 40,000 New Taiwan dollars (approximately 1300 USD as of December 2018) for 1000 m2 that will last for 20 years. Is the rent attractive enough to move the dominant use of land from farming to solar panels? The *Council of Agriculture* reports an average rent for farmland per square meter in the Tuku Township of Yunlin—famous for its garlic farming—to be 9.14 NTD, equivalent to 9140 NTD for 1000 m<sup>2</sup> of farmland [12]. That is to say, the revenue of leasing land to allow for photovoltaic installations earns 4.4 times the market rent for farming. The rent offered from solar panels is apparently alluring.
