Taiwan's AI-driven chip boom is pushing electricity demand far faster than expected, which is good for the economy but a growing risk for anyone counting on stable, clean power.

• Taipower expects semiconductor plants to use about 30% of Taiwan's electricity by 2035, up from 17% today.
• The economy ministry raised its ten-year demand growth forecast, and the cabinet has now told it to plan for the highest-demand scenario.
• The fix is mostly new gas plants — about 26GW added between 2026 and 2035 — plus batteries and grid upgrades, since solar leaves a gap after sunset.
• Power plants take far longer to build than chip fabs, so construction speed is the near-term bottleneck.
• The bigger squeeze is green power: chipmakers with RE100 pledges will need more than twice all the renewable electricity Taiwan generated last year.

Outlook: Supply looks adequate on paper, but the next five years hinge on new plants coming online on time and the decade after that on whether green power can keep pace.