Greenpeace yesterday urged semiconductor companies to further embrace solar energy, citing a survey that found nearly half of respondents living near where Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) has or plans to establish operations would be willing to lease their roofs for solar panels.
Forty-six percent of respondents in Tainan, Kaohsiung, and Hsinchu city and county who said they would be willing to rent out roof space for solar panels, Greenpeace Climate and Energy Project manager Chen Yung-jen (陳詠仁) said, citing a survey conducted by the charity in May.
Nearly 70 percent of respondents said that chipmakers should do more to increase the amount of solar energy produced, Chen added.
Photo: Chen Chia-yi, Taipei Times
Twenty-five village leaders from administrative regions around the Central Taiwan Science Park (中部科學園區) — where some TSMC fabs are based — said that they would be willing to lead an effort to persuade the semiconductor firm to help fund the installation of rooftop solar equipment in the area, he said.
The combined area of rooftops available for solar panels exceeds 900 hectares, about 444 times the size of Taipei Arena, Greenpeace said.
If used, they provide solar panel capacity of up to 900 megawatts, generating about 1,000 gigawatt-hours of renewable electricity annually, he said.
Chen said that if TSMC fully utilizes this capacity, its renewable energy use could increase to 15 percent of its total, up from the 10.4 percent reported in the chipmaker’s sustainability report last year.
Greenpeace has launched an online petition to ask village leaders across Taiwan to persuade residents to lease their unused rooftops for TSMC’s solar equipment installation, he said.
The petition data would be provided to TSMC for reference, the Greenpeace Web site says.
“The idea is not to single out TSMC, but to urge all semiconductor firms to increase solar energy use. Hopefully, TSMC, as the most well-known company, can act as the industry leader,” Chen said.
Taiwan Photovoltaic Industry Association executive director Chen Kun-hong (陳坤宏) said that numerous photovoltaic firms have already begun collaborating with local administrative units to develop community rooftop solar projects.
John Yang (楊仲傑), village warden of Tanyang in Taichung, said that residents strongly support Taiwan’s renewable energy development and efforts to provide renewable energy to TSMC.
However, he said that some residents would consider factors such as risk, construction quality and maintenance when deciding whether to allow the installation of solar panels on their rooftops.
Yang also said that if TSMC can hold face-to-face meetings to discuss these matters, it would reassure many Tanyang residents, and would aligns with TSMC’s social obligations as a major corporation.
TSMC joined the RE100 initiative in 2020, committing to achieve 100 percent renewable energy usage by 2050.
Theaters and institutions in Taiwan have received 28 threatening e-mails, including bomb threats, since a documentary critical of China began being screened across the nation last month, the National Security Bureau said yesterday. The actions are part of China’s attempts to undermine Taiwan’s sovereignty, it said. State Organs (國有器官) documents allegations that Chinese government officials engage in organ harvesting and other illegal activities. From last month to Friday last week, 28 incidents have been reported of theaters or institutions receiving threats, including bomb and shooting threats, if they did not stop showing the documentary, the bureau said. Although the threats were not carried out,
The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) on Friday condemned Chinese and Russian authorities for escalating regional tensions, citing Chinese warplanes crossing the Taiwan Strait’s median line and joint China-Russia military activities breaching South Korea’s air defense identification zone (KADIZ) over the past two days. A total of 30 Chinese warplanes crossed the median line of the Taiwan Strait on Thursday and Friday, entering Taiwan’s northern and southwestern airspace in coordination with 15 naval vessels and three high-altitude balloons, the MAC said in a statement. The Chinese military also carried out another “joint combat readiness patrol” targeting Taiwan on Thursday evening, the MAC said. On
‘GRAY ZONE’ TACTICS: China continues to build up its military capacity while regularly deploying jets and warships around Taiwan, with the latest balloon spotted on Sunday The US is drawing up contingency plans for military deployments in Japan and the Philippines in case of a Taiwan emergency, Japan’s Kyodo news agency reported. They would be incorporated in a first joint operation plan to be formulated in December, Kyodo reported late on Sunday, citing sources familiar with Japan-US relations. A US Marine Corps regiment that possesses High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems — a light multiple rocket launcher — would be deployed along the Nansei Island chain stretching from Kyushu to Yonaguni near Taiwan, Kyodo said. According to US military guidelines for dispatching marines in small formations to several locations,
The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) yesterday confirmed that Chinese students visiting Taiwan at the invitation of the Ma Ying-jeou Foundation were almost all affiliated with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). During yesterday’s meeting convened by the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee, Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Michelle Lin (林楚茵) asked whether the visit was a way to spread China’s so-called “united front” rhetoric, to which MAC Deputy Ministry Shen You-chung (沈有忠) responded with the CCP comment. The MAC noticed that the Chinese individuals visiting Taiwan, including those in sports, education, or religion, have had increasingly impressive backgrounds, demonstrating that the
RSS