The global AI wave has elevated computing power from a mere IT metric to a core component of national strategic competitiveness. However, Taiwan's total computing capacity stands at approximately 660MW, significantly trailing South Korea's 4.2GW (AI Data Center Index, as of July 2026). If Taiwan remains content with hardware contract manufacturing of servers and chips while outsourcing AI model development and data governance overseas, it is effectively laying the bricks for other nations' sovereign AI systems. As the bottleneck in AI competition shifts from GPUs to electricity, Taiwan must transcend passive power supply thinking and integrate computing, electricity, and land into a unified policy framework to achieve the strategic transformation from 'computing autonomy to energy self-sufficiency'.

Moving Beyond 'Digital Real Estate': A Value-Driven Review Approach

Learning from Texas's temporary suspension of new data center interconnection reviews due to surging demand, Taiwan must strictly adhere to the principle of 'assess value before capacity' when reviewing large-scale computing center applications. The July 2026 amendment to the 'Energy Development and Utilization Evaluation Guidelines' has introduced a draft 'Industrial Benefit Assessment'—a crucial wake-up call. Electricity is an extremely precious resource and must not allow data centers to become low-value, high-energy-consuming 'digital real estate'. Every unit of electricity allocated should be rigorously evaluated for its tangible contributions to domestic R&D outcomes, ecosystem empowerment, and economic efficiency. At the same time, operators should fairly shoulder the costs of new grid infrastructure and reserve a certain proportion of computing capacity for academic research, startups, and public welfare.

Integrated 'Source-Grid-Storage-Load': A New Paradigm from Taoyuan's Datan Cold Energy Park

The breakthrough to achieving energy self-sufficiency lies in 'production based on energy availability' (yi neng ding chan) and cross-sector integration. The recently announced 'Datan Cold Energy Computing Park' in Taoyuan offers an exemplary model. Located adjacent to the Datan Power Plant, the park receives 24/7 baseload power, bypassing transmission losses and congestion. Simultaneously, it harnesses the -162°C cold energy released during LNG vaporization at CPC's third LNG terminal to feed liquid cooling systems, effectively solving the three major challenges faced by AI data centers: land use, power consumption, and high-power heat dissipation. This 'energy special zone' model, involving collaboration between the Ministry of Economic Affairs, Taipower, CPC, and local government, embodies the core concept of 'source-grid-storage-load integration', enabling localized balance between regional microgrids and computing loads.

Strengthening Computing Governance: Institutionalizing Sovereign Resilience

To realize this strategy, we believe the government should accelerate three key policy measures:

- Designate regulatory sandboxes: Relax restrictions on direct microgrid power supply to provide legal flexibility for emerging computing parks. - Adopt public-private partnership (PPP) models: Attract private capital and operators to build large-scale energy storage and liquid cooling infrastructure networks. - Advance national standardization: Establish communication interfaces and verification protocols to ensure operational resilience across devices and microgrids.

Computing power is national strength; energy is the lifeline. Amid geopolitical tensions and natural disaster risks, only by ensuring high-end equipment is physically located domestically, critical data remains within borders, and control over system 'autonomous dispatch rights' is maintained can Taiwan safeguard its industrial sovereignty and achieve sustainable development in the AI era.

*The author is affiliated with the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research.

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  • Source: PR Times
  • Category: News