Taiwan is lagging behind other countries in the development of its renewable energy sector, which will require comprehensive legislation and an injection of more money if the government wants to make sustainable production work in Taiwan, experts said.
"Exploiting green energy is a must for Taiwan, especially since it relies heavily on imported energy, which accounts for 97.9 percent of national consumption," Chan Shih-hung (詹世弘), chairman of the Taiwan Renewable Energy Industry Promotion Association (台灣新能源產業促進協會), said at the National Energy Conference on Monday.
In a report issued after the conference, the government said it plans to expand renewable energy sources to supply between 4 percent and 6 percent of the nation's power by 2020, and between 5 percent and 7 percent by 2025.
This corresponds to targets set after the previous national energy meeting in 1998.
The goal is much lower than that of countries like Germany, which plans to boost renewable energy sources to supply 12.5 percent of all its electricity by 2010, and Japan, with a goal of 10.8 percent over the same period, Chu Hsin-sen (曲新生), executive vice president of the Industrial Technology Research Institute, said at the conference.
Taiwan wants to develop the means of harnessing solar, wind, geothermal, hydroelectric and biomass energy, with hydroelectric and wind power having the most potential, Chu said.
The first step would be to pass the proposed statute on the development of renewable energy (再生能源發展條例) into law to serve as a guideline for the development of sustainable power sources, he said.
A lack of funds is another major obstacle, Chu said. He said the US, Japan and EU each devote around US$300 million a year to further the development of hydrogen power, while Taiwan has only budgeted US$7.8 million.
As a result, key technology and equipment to produce renewable energy are being controlled by foreign enterprises, he said.
When an apartment comes up for rent in Germany’s big cities, hundreds of prospective tenants often queue down the street to view it, but the acute shortage of affordable housing is getting scant attention ahead of today’s snap general election. “Housing is one of the main problems for people, but nobody talks about it, nobody takes it seriously,” said Andreas Ibel, president of Build Europe, an association representing housing developers. Migration and the sluggish economy top the list of voters’ concerns, but analysts say housing policy fails to break through as returns on investment take time to register, making the
‘SILVER LINING’: Although the news caused TSMC to fall on the local market, an analyst said that as tariffs are not set to go into effect until April, there is still time for negotiations US President Donald Trump on Tuesday said that he would likely impose tariffs on semiconductor, automobile and pharmaceutical imports of about 25 percent, with an announcement coming as soon as April 2 in a move that would represent a dramatic widening of the US leader’s trade war. “I probably will tell you that on April 2, but it’ll be in the neighborhood of 25 percent,” Trump told reporters at his Mar-a-Lago club when asked about his plan for auto tariffs. Asked about similar levies on pharmaceutical drugs and semiconductors, the president said that “it’ll be 25 percent and higher, and it’ll
CHIP BOOM: Revenue for the semiconductor industry is set to reach US$1 trillion by 2032, opening up opportunities for the chip pacakging and testing company, it said ASE Technology Holding Co (日月光投控), the world’s largest provider of outsourced semiconductor assembly and test (OSAT) services, yesterday launched a new advanced manufacturing facility in Penang, Malaysia, aiming to meet growing demand for emerging technologies such as generative artificial intelligence (AI) applications. The US$300 million facility is a critical step in expanding ASE’s global footprint, offering an alternative for customers from the US, Europe, Japan, South Korea and China to assemble and test chips outside of Taiwan amid efforts to diversify supply chains. The plant, the company’s fifth in Malaysia, is part of a strategic expansion plan that would more than triple
Taiwanese artificial intelligence (AI) server makers are expected to make major investments in Texas in May after US President Donald Trump’s first 100 days in office and amid his rising tariff threats, Taiwan Electrical and Electronic Manufacturers’ Association (TEEMA, 台灣電子電機公會) chairman Richard Lee (李詩欽) said yesterday. The association led a delegation of seven AI server manufacturers to Washington, as well as the US states of California, Texas and New Mexico, to discuss land and tax issues, as Taiwanese firms speed up their production plans in the US with many of them seeing Texas as their top option for investment, Lee said. The
RSS