Military manufacturing schedules remain on-time, while renewable energy generation is stable and looking to expand, an Executive Yuan report on government policy and achievements to the Legislative Yuan’s new session showed yesterday.
The Ministry of National Defense as of the end of last year had delivered 27 of the 66 Brave Eagle, or Yung Ying (勇鷹), Advanced Jet Trainers it has ordered, the report said.
The defense ministry and the Ministry of Economic Affairs had selected eight companies to produce 36 commercial-grade uncrewed aerial vehicles of five different types for military use, which are expected to be delivered starting this year to 2028, the report said.
Photo: Lo Pei-de, Taipei Times
The military is awaiting delivery of the Hai Kun (海鯤), or Narwhal, submarine; anti-air and anti-submarine variants of guided-missile frigates; and an auxiliary rescue and salvage ship that was launched for trials on March 27 last year, following its acquisition of the Yushan (玉山) amphibious transport ship, which was delivered to the navy on June 19 last year, it said.
The defense ministry last year obtained 293 technologies, facilities or products to ensure that its maintenance capability can keep up with its new acquisitions, the report said.
It had listed 700 defense-related restricted products and is encouraging domestic manufacturers to shift track to join the domestic national defense supply chain, it added.
The ministry would arrange meetings to attract potential suppliers to enhance the national defense industry’s autonomy, it said.
The report also touched on electricity supply issues, saying that power generation this year is expected to be stable, while policies are being deployed to expand renewable power storage to 29 gigawatts (GW) by next year.
National power density rose to 6.14 percent in the third quarter of last year compared with the same period in 2022, it said.
The inclusion of new natural-gas boilers to the national grid, new pricing and continued growth of renewable energy sources had increased power reserves from a 2015 nadir of 1.64 percent back to a stable reserve of 6 to 10 percent last year, the report said.
As new natural-gas boiler units are expected to be completed this year, power generation is expected to be stable, it added.
As of November last year, renewable energy storage capacity nationwide was 17.51GW, with solar comprising 12.01GW and wind contributing 2.67GW, the report said.
As of December last year, the National Renewable Energy Certification Center had issued 3.51 million National Renewable Energy Certificates (T-REC), equivalent to 35.19 billion kilowatt-hours (kWH), while the center had registered the use of 30.5 billion certificates, or about 31.86 billion kilowatt-hours, it said.
Each T-REC represents 1kWh of renewable energy. Companies can use the certificates to “buy” renewable energy from power generators.
DISCONTENT: The CCP finds positive content about the lives of the Chinese living in Taiwan threatening, as such video could upset people in China, an expert said Chinese spouses of Taiwanese who make videos about their lives in Taiwan have been facing online threats from people in China, a source said yesterday. Some young Chinese spouses of Taiwanese make videos about their lives in Taiwan, often speaking favorably about their living conditions in the nation compared with those in China, the source said. However, the videos have caught the attention of Chinese officials, causing the spouses to come under attack by Beijing’s cyberarmy, they said. “People have been messing with the YouTube channels of these Chinese spouses and have been harassing their family members back in China,”
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) yesterday said there are four weather systems in the western Pacific, with one likely to strengthen into a tropical storm and pose a threat to Taiwan. The nascent tropical storm would be named Usagi and would be the fourth storm in the western Pacific at the moment, along with Typhoon Yinxing and tropical storms Toraji and Manyi, the CWA said. It would be the first time that four tropical cyclones exist simultaneously in November, it added. Records from the meteorology agency showed that three tropical cyclones existed concurrently in January in 1968, 1991 and 1992.
GEOPOLITICAL CONCERNS: Foreign companies such as Nissan, Volkswagen and Konica Minolta have pulled back their operations in China this year Foreign companies pulled more money from China last quarter, a sign that some investors are still pessimistic even as Beijing rolls out stimulus measures aimed at stabilizing growth. China’s direct investment liabilities in its balance of payments dropped US$8.1 billion in the third quarter, data released by the Chinese State Administration of Foreign Exchange showed on Friday. The gauge, which measures foreign direct investment (FDI) in China, was down almost US$13 billion for the first nine months of the year. Foreign investment into China has slumped in the past three years after hitting a record in 2021, a casualty of geopolitical tensions,
‘SOMETHING SPECIAL’: Donald Trump vowed to reward his supporters, while President William Lai said he was confident the Taiwan-US partnership would continue Donald Trump was elected the 47th president of the US early yesterday morning, an extraordinary comeback for a former president who was convicted of felony charges and survived two assassination attempts. With a win in Wisconsin, Trump cleared the 270 electoral votes needed to clinch the presidency. As of press time last night, The Associated Press had Trump on 277 electoral college votes to 224 for US Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic Party’s nominee, with Alaska, Arizona, Maine, Michigan and Nevada yet to finalize results. He had 71,289,216 votes nationwide, or 51 percent, while Harris had 66,360,324 (47.5 percent). “We’ve been through so
RSS