Ryan Shen, Chairman Shares How to Gain a "Social License" and Overcome Resistance to Power Infrastructure Development

Shang-Hung Ryan Shen, Chairman of Taya Group, stated that while developers generally select energy storage sites in accordance with regulations, the key factor determining whether a project can ultimately be completed successfully lies in obtaining a "social license". Photo by Liao Rui-Xiang.

In addition, Chuang, Bo-Kuei, General Manager of the Telecommunications Business Group at Taya Group, shared that when developing each project site, the company first identifies local community opinion leaders and addresses potential concerns before opposition issues surface publicly.

The company also proactively negotiates neighborhood relations initiatives and local community benefit programs in advance. Only after these preparations are completed does the company hold local community briefing sessions. By that stage, residents generally already have a comprehensive understanding of the project and many of their concerns have been resolved, leading to broader support for the development.

In simple terms, Zhuang emphasized: “You should not go into a community briefing session without preparation.”

David Liu, Vice Chairman of USESYS Technology, further noted that in addition to basic regulatory compliance and proactively communicating potential concerns, developers must take system design seriously and provide a well-designed operational environment.

Since local residents are usually most concerned about safety — particularly the risk of fire — the company actively explains the technologies used in energy storage installations and the safety measures implemented, helping reassure nearby communities.


Chuang, Bo-Kuei, General Manager of the Telecommunications Business Group at Taya Group, shared that during the development of each project site, the company first engages with local community opinion leaders and resolves potential concerns before opposition issues emerge publicly. Photo by Liao Rui-Xiang.

David Liu, Vice Chairman and CEO of USESYS Technology, stated that local residents are most concerned about safety issues. Therefore, the company proactively explains the technologies used in energy storage installations and the related safety considerations in advance, helping reassure nearby communities. Photo by Liao Rui-Xiang.

However, Shang-Hung Ryan Shen candidly noted that issues surrounding a “social license” may sometimes relate to public interests, while at other times they may involve private interests. If the concerns are tied to the public good, compromise and resolution are often possible. But if the issues are driven by private interests, reaching consensus can become far more difficult.

Shen further raised an important question: when energy infrastructure investment projects fail to obtain a “social license,” is it because regulations do not adequately address residents’ needs, or are there other underlying issues at play? He believes this is a topic worthy of deeper discussion.

For example, there was previously a fishery-solar symbiosis project where transformers generated low-frequency humming noise that affected nearby residents because the issue had not been fully considered during site selection. In response, Taiwan’s Energy Administration later revised regulations requiring fishery-solar facilities to maintain a minimum distance from residential areas, demonstrating how regulatory frameworks can evolve through continuous review and improvement.

But beyond regulations, Shen emphasized that there may still be other factors preventing projects from obtaining a “social license,” which he described as an especially interesting issue.

He explained that if the issue involves public interests, Taya Group adheres to its management philosophy of “coexistence and mutual prosperity” with employees, customers, suppliers, and society. The company approaches these situations with empathy and proactive communication, striving to identify potential concerns early and address them beforehand whenever possible.

For instance, when developing the Zhiguang solar power plant in Qigu, the company anticipated that environmental groups might be concerned about the habitat of the endangered black-faced spoonbill, mangrove conservation, or traffic impacts on local residents. Some of these concerns were already covered by regulations, while others fell outside existing legal frameworks. In all cases, Daya’s first priority was to communicate thoroughly with all relevant stakeholders.

In addition, during the planning stage of the Zhiguang project, the company recognized that the livelihood rights of local fish farmers should also be protected. As a result, after leasing fishpond land for the solar power facility, the company prioritized leasing the ponds back to the original aquaculture operators for continued fish farming.

Shen openly acknowledged that communication often requires compromise, and compromise frequently means additional costs. However, Daya’s philosophy is that obtaining a “social license” is worth those costs, even if regulations do not explicitly require such actions.

According to Shen, this is one of the key reasons why Taya Group has continued to successfully launch large-scale energy projects despite growing social pressure and increasing opposition from local communities toward power infrastructure development.

At the same time, Shen admitted that if the party granting the "social license" takes an absolute position of “completely unacceptable,” then no amount of communication will succeed. Once an issue is framed as a strict binary choice — zero or one — there is effectively no solution.

Solutions only become possible when all parties define the issue as finding a balance among competing interests and demands. This also means that stakeholders — including developers, government agencies, environmental groups, and local communities — generally all need to make compromises to some degree.

Source: Yahoo News