Aquavoltaics, Local Knowledge, and Just Energy Transitions: Governance Trade-Offs in Southern Taiwan

Aquavoltaics, which integrates solar photovoltaic infrastructure with aquaculture production, has increasingly been promoted as a possible pathway for supporting low-carbon energy transition and multifunctional land use in coastal regions. In Taiwan, aquavoltaics has been framed as a policy approach that may contribute to renewable energy development, aquaculture continuity, and rural revitalisation. However, its implementation has also raised governance concerns related to land use, environmental uncertainty, and local participation in coastal aquaculture communities. This study examines the governance trade-offs and institutional development of aquavoltaics policy in southern Taiwan through an analytical framework that combines political ecology and the extended explanatory chain model (EECM). Drawing on policy document analysis, field observations, administrative records, and in-depth interviews with 24 stakeholders, the study traces aquavoltaics governance across five interrelated stages: policy discourse, institutional design, local implementation and community response, policy feedback, and institutional diffusion. The findings indicate that Taiwan’s aquavoltaics governance has been shaped by tensions between centralised energy-policy objectives and diverse local aquaculture conditions. Technical requirements, including the 40% shading threshold and the 70% production maintenance requirement, provide administrative clarity but may not fully reflect species-specific practices, pond-management needs, or existing land-tenure arrangements. In the cases examined, aquavoltaics development was associated with changes in land-use relations, spatial competition, and concerns over environmental uncertainty and governance legitimacy. The study also suggests that local stakeholders were not only recipients of top–down policy implementation but also participated in governance adjustment through review procedures, administrative negotiation, adaptive practices, and the mobilisation of local ecological knowledge. By integrating political ecology with the EECM, this study offers a process-oriented perspective for examining aquavoltaics as a socioecological governance issue rather than only a technical energy arrangement. The findings suggest that future aquavoltaics governance may benefit from more context-sensitive assessment, clearer institutional coordination, and greater attention to local knowledge and long-term monitoring.