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Funny thing I learned is that Taiwan actually needs Typhoons every year. The west coast of the island has many huge water dams (for instance, Baoshan dam), tha
by aubanel 3y ago
Funny thing I learned is that Taiwan actually needs Typhoons every year.
The west coast of the island has many huge water dams (for instance, Baoshan dam), that are critical to sustain life and industry throughout the year.
Each typhoon (tropical cyclones are called "typhoons" in West Pacific, and "hurricanes" in the US) that passes in the area brings about torrential rains, thus refilling the dams. And a year without typhoon means the freshwater reserves will go dry.
Example of a recent shortage: https://focustaiwan.tw/society/202308070018 https://focustaiwan.tw/society/202308070018
- pfannkuchen 3y agoThey are tuned for this, but would they really have a shortage if the typhoons stopped and they retuned?
- kurthr 3y agoThey have droughts every 3-5 years near Taipei and during those droughts they regularly consider shuttering parts of Hsinchu Science Park where many of the largest fabs are are major users of water. They likely wouldn't turn off the newest fabs and might just run at lower capacity, but it's competing with farming and drinking water allocation. The dams don't hold that much capacity. https://www.npr.org/2023/04/13/1169462995/taiwan-makes-tough-decisions-as-it-faces-its-worst-drought-in-nearly-a-century https://www.npr.org/2023/04/13/1169462995/taiwan-makes-tough... Note that there was also a drought 2 years ago: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/08/technology/taiwan-drought-tsmc-semiconductors.html https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/08/technology/taiwan-drought...