A local industry association head said Taiwan should learn from Japan in terms of how to use a variety of resources for electricity generation, including nuclear power, as future technologies are destined to consume much more power.
Chinese National Association of Industry and Commerce (CNAIC) chairman Thomas Wu (吳東亮) said on the sidelines of the Taiwan-Japan (Kyushu) Economic and Trade Forum in Taipei on Tuesday that one of the reasons Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) opened a plant in Kyushu is the location’s access to power resources which include nuclear and hydroelectric power.
Wu was responding to a media inquiry about his views on whether power consumption would drastically increase with the development of artificial intelligence (AI), given that nuclear power would no longer be part of Taiwan’s power mix by next year if existing laws relating to the ongoing decommission of nuclear plants remain unchanged.
He said that the government should have experts to estimate how much more electricity would be required to further develop AI.
“When Kyushu Electric Power chairman Michiaki Uriu came to last year’s forum, he had exchanges with [Vice Minister of Economic Affairs] Tseng Wen-sheng (曾文生),” he said, adding that Taiwan could use Japan’s experience as a reference.
In a net zero summit held in June last year by Taishin International Bank, Uriu said Kyushu Electric Power Co’s strategy for reaching net zero is to utilize nuclear power to ensure energy diversity and security.
Wu said that Kyushu, in addition to having comprehensive semiconductor industry clusters, has “stable, sufficient green power with a competitive price,” making it a top choice for semiconductor companies to invest and set up factories.
CNAIC and the Kyushu Economic Federation in 2008 signed a memorandum of understanding for future cooperation in 2012, and has held forums focused on semiconductors and AI since 2022, Wu said.
“It took less than two years for JASM [Japan Advanced Semiconductor Manufacturing Inc], TSMC’s joint venture in Kyushu, to build the fab in Kumamoto, which shows that semiconductor cooperation between Taiwan and Japan is not only an economic engine for both countries, but also key to the two excelling in a world impacted by geopolitical changes and supply chain reshuffling,” Wu said.
Taiwan’s financial sector has also been brought to Kyushu by the TSMC-led investment, with E.Sun Bank recently opening a Fukuoka branch and Taishin Bank to open a sub-branch in Fukuoka on April 23, he added.
INFRASTRUCTURE: Work on the second segment, from Kaohsiung to Pingtung, is expected to begin in 2028 and be completed by 2039, the railway bureau said Planned high-speed rail (HSR) extensions would blanket Taiwan proper in four 90-minute commute blocs to facilitate regional economic and livelihood integration, Railway Bureau Deputy Director-General Yang Cheng-chun (楊正君) said in an interview published yesterday. A project to extend the high-speed rail from Zuoying Station in Kaohsiung to Pingtung County’s Lioukuaicuo Township (六塊厝) is the first part of the bureau’s greater plan to expand rail coverage, he told the Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times). The bureau’s long-term plan is to build a loop to circle Taiwan proper that would consist of four sections running from Taipei to Hualien, Hualien to
A relatively large earthquake may strike within the next two weeks, following a magnitude 5.2 temblor that shook Taitung County this morning, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. An earthquake struck at 8:18am today 10.2km west of Taitung County Hall in Taitung City at a relatively shallow depth of 6.5km, CWA data showed. The largest intensity of 4 was felt in Taitung and Pingtung counties, which received an alert notice, while areas north of Taichung did not feel any shaking, the CWA said. The earthquake was the result of the collision between the Philippine Plate and the Eurasian Plate, the agency said, adding
Snow fell in the mountainous areas of northern, central and eastern Taiwan in the early hours of yesterday, as cold air currents moved south. In the northern municipality of Taoyuan, snow started falling at about 6am in Fusing District (復興), district head Su Tso-hsi (蘇佐璽) said. By 10am, Lalashan National Forest Recreation Area, as well as Hualing (華陵), Sanguang (三光) and Gaoyi (高義) boroughs had seen snowfall, Su said. In central Taiwan, Shei-Pa National Park in Miaoli County and Hehuanshan National Forest Recreation Area in Nantou County saw snowfall of 5cm and 6cm respectively, by 10am, staff at the parks said. It began snowing
The 2025 Kaohsiung Wonderland–Winter Amusement Park event has teamed up with the Japanese manga series Chiikawa this year for its opening at Love River Bay yesterday, attracting more than 10,000 visitors, the city government said. Following the success of the “2024 Kaohsiung Wonderland” collaboration with a giant inflatable yellow duck installation designed by Dutch artist Florentijn Hofman, this year the Kaohsiung Tourism Bureau collaborated with Chiikawa by Japanese illustrator Nagano to present two giant inflatable characters. Two inflatable floats — the main character, Chiikwa, a white bear-like creature with round ears, and Hachiware, a white cat with a blue-tipped tail
RSS