The government's policy on producing crops for energy will refocus on crops used for ethanol gasoline after efforts to grow crops for biodiesel over the past two years proved inefficient, a senior Agriculture and Food Agency (AFA) official said yesterday.
AFA Deputy Director Yu Sheng-feng (游勝鋒) said that as part of the efforts to promote the use of biomass energy, the agency planted biodiesel crops, including soybeans and sunflowers, on 1,721 hectares of fallow land in Yunlin, Chiayi and Tainan counties last year.
EXPANSION
This year the cultivation of such crops was expanded to 24 counties and townships nationwide, including Taoyuan and Taipei counties, on a total of 3,334 hectares of fallow.
However, harvests were far less than expected because of inclement weather and pests, Yu said, adding that the harvests were only sufficient to fuel a fleet of vehicles used in government biomass energy programs such as the "green government vehicle" program launched in September.
SWEET POTATOES
Because of this, Yu said, efforts will turn to plants such as sweet potatoes, which are one of the main crops used in the production of bio-ethanol.
Faced with an international energy crisis as crude oil prices skyrocket, the government is betting on biofuel crops to alleviate the problem within Taiwan, the AFA said.
NOBEL LAUREATE
Meanwhile, former Academia Sinica president Lee Yuan-tseh (
At a conference on national parks and forests hosted by the Construction and Planning Agency in Taipei earlier yesterday, Lee said that the country is inching forward at a snail's pace in its efforts to reduce carbon dioxide emissions.
Death row inmate Huang Lin-kai (黃麟凱), who was convicted for the double murder of his former girlfriend and her mother, is to be executed at the Taipei Detention Center tonight, the Ministry of Justice announced. Huang, who was a military conscript at the time, was convicted for the rape and murder of his ex-girlfriend, surnamed Wang (王), and the murder of her mother, after breaking into their home on Oct. 1, 2013. Prosecutors cited anger over the breakup and a dispute about money as the motives behind the double homicide. This is the first time that Minister of Justice Cheng Ming-chien (鄭銘謙) has
BITTERLY COLD: The inauguration ceremony for US president-elect Donald Trump has been moved indoors due to cold weather, with the new venue lacking capacity A delegation of cross-party lawmakers from Taiwan, led by Legislative Speaker Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜), for the inauguration of US president-elect Donald Trump, would not be able to attend the ceremony, as it is being moved indoors due to forecasts of intense cold weather in Washington tomorrow. The inauguration ceremony for Trump and US vice president-elect JD Vance is to be held inside the Capitol Rotunda, which has a capacity of about 2,000 people. A person familiar with the issue yesterday said although the outdoor inauguration ceremony has been relocated, Taiwan’s legislative delegation has decided to head off to Washington as scheduled. The delegation
TRANSPORT CONVENIENCE: The new ticket gates would accept a variety of mobile payment methods, and buses would be installed with QR code readers for ease of use New ticketing gates for the Taipei metro system are expected to begin service in October, allowing users to swipe with cellphones and select credit cards partnered with Taipei Rapid Transit Corp (TRTC), the company said on Tuesday. TRTC said its gates in use are experiencing difficulty due to their age, as they were first installed in 2007. Maintenance is increasingly expensive and challenging as the manufacturing of components is halted or becoming harder to find, the company said. Currently, the gates only accept EasyCard, iPass and electronic icash tickets, or one-time-use tickets purchased at kiosks, the company said. Since 2023, the company said it
Another wave of cold air would affect Taiwan starting from Friday and could evolve into a continental cold mass, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Temperatures could drop below 10°C across Taiwan on Monday and Tuesday next week, CWA forecaster Chang Chun-yao (張竣堯) said. Seasonal northeasterly winds could bring rain, he said. Meanwhile, due to the continental cold mass and radiative cooling, it would be cold in northern and northeastern Taiwan today and tomorrow, according to the CWA. From last night to this morning, temperatures could drop below 10°C in northern Taiwan, it said. A thin coat of snow
RSS